The Telco GDR contributed largely to the rise witnessed by the Skindia GDR Index. Telco's GDR shot up 18.53 per cent to close at $3.23 during the week ended December 10. "The sharp rise was attributed to Fortune magazine's rating of Telco as one of the top ten investment opportunities in Asia," explained a Skindia release.

Similarly the GDRs of Core Healthcare and Crompton Greaves also rose 33.33 per cent and 18.92 per cent respectively.

With the GDR market indices appreciating by over 6 per cent, the overall average premiums of the 60 GDRs moved up from 5.90 per cent on December 3 to 7.21 per cent on December 10. During the same period, the spreads of the 37 most-actively traded GDRs narrowed downfrom 10.11 per cent to 9.13 per cent.

Over the week, the 60 GDRs on an average gained 4.76 per cent while the underlying shares by 3.91 per cent.

In the GDR markets, telecom sector GDRs appreciated by 9.25 per cent, followed by auto sector GDRs which rose by 9.18 per cent, and the pharma sector GDRs shot up by 8.44 per cent. It should be recalled that the 6.25 per cent gain made by the BSE-30 share Sensitive index was also largely contributed by the representatives of these three sectors.

However during the week ended December 10, the GDRs of steel and fertiliser sector declined by 2.4 per cent and 2.16 per cent respectively.

Among the PSU representatives, the GDRs of VSNL and MTNL were quoted at a hefty premium to their underlying stock prices. While the VSNL GDR closed at a premium of 38.12 per cent against its underlying stock value, which was pegged at Rs 710.75 on December 10. Similarly, the GDR of MTNL was traded at a premium of 35.08 per cent against its underlying stock price of Rs 183.30.

Astudy conducted by Skindia Finance revealed that the GDRs of MTNL witnessed a volatility of 3.76 per cent as compared to 2.91 per cent for the underlying stock.

Its GDR had a correlation of 0.63 and a beta of 1.07 with the Skindia GDR index and with its underlying stock 0.32 and 0.72 respectively. GDRs of Tata Electric and Indian Aluminium were however quoted at a discount to their underlying stocks.