The corpus of Kothari Income Builder Account has crossed the Rs 50 crore mark. Assets under the management have seen a spurt from Rs 16.72 crore on March 31 to Rs 50.19 crore as on December 23. This translates into a rise of over 200 per cent. The rise in unit capital has overwhelmingly added to the corpus of the fund, which has gone up from Rs 15.02 crore to Rs 41.70 crore during the same period. This marks a rise of 173 per cent in unit capital. As on September 30, the corpus and unit capital were Rs 33.30 crore and Rs 39.33 crore, respectively. Launched on June 24, 1997, Kothari Income Builder mobilised Rs 8 crore during the initial offer. The fund has seen its net asset value rise to Rs 12.29 (as on December 22 for the growth plan). Between March 31 and December 23, the NAV of the growth plan has moved up from Rs 11.13 to Rs 12.29.

FIs likely to back India Cements rights:

The Rs 160 crore rights offer from India Cements Ltd will open forsubscription on December 28. The issue, in the ratio of 1:1, has been priced at Rs 25. The market price of India Cements has been hovering around Rs 30 on the Mumbai Stock Exchange (BSE). According to company officials, insitutions, which hold the key to the success of the rights offer, have indicated their willingness to subscribe to the offer. The financial institutions, including UTI, LIC and GIC, hold a little over 30 per cent in the company. Post-rights, the book value of the stock will drop to Rs 50 from its March 1998 level of Rs 75.70. The equity capital will rise from Rs 64 crore to Rs 128 crore.

No decision yet on US-64:

The Deepak Parekh committee set up to look into the restructuring of US-64 met again at UTI headquarters in Mumbai today, to discuss the various options before the committee for restructuring the flagship scheme. It is learnt that the members of the committee discussed various options and nothing was finalised on the same. Last week when the committee members had met,the chairman of the committee Deepak Parekh had said that the report will be finalised by the first week of January or by the last week of December.

Reliance Growth Fund outperforms Sensex:

Reliance Growth Fund of Reliance AMC has outperformed the sensex by 46.63 per cent. The fund was launched on September 10, 1995 with a net asset value of Rs 10 when the Sensex was at 3,598.37. The fund has grown to achieve a high NAV of Rs 12.93 on December 21, 1998 with the Sensex at 2,973.37. Thus, during the period under consideration, the sensex has dropped by 17.36 per cent compared to a 29.3 per cent rise in NAV. With the fund rising by 29.3 per cent, it has created a surplus of over Rs 6 crore for its unitholders. The corpus of the fund has risen from Rs 20.75 crore to Rs 26.5 crore as on November 30, 1998.

New DSE board plans to revive declining turnover:

Delhi stock exchange (DSE) has decided to expand trading network and deploy 'market specialists' to revive the market. Immediately afterthe election of office bearers last evening, DSE board met to take stock of the disturbing trends, mainly emnating from a steep drop in its daily turnover to about Rs 128 crore now from Rs 500 crore last year. Newly elected DSE President Ashok Agarwal said that the first and foremost job for the new team would be to boost the turnover of the exchange and also the market share which has declined in the recent Times.

ASSOCHAM call on buyback:

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has called for exemption of buy-back of shares from the provision of deemed dividend so as to allow corporates unhindered use of the facility whose objective is to improve the competitiveness of the domestic industry. In a note to the finance ministry, assocham President, K P Singh said that the `futuristic provision' under section 77A of the companies act inserted by the companies (amendment) ordinance allowing companies to buy back their own shares has been included with the avowed aim offacilitating the integration of Indian industry with global industry.

DSE up 0.15 points:

Share values closed mixed today at the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) as late trading wiped out early gains. The DSE index (base 1983) closed 0.15 points higher at 647.67. Sources said the overall market mood was depressed. However, software scrips looked up. Pentafour software gained Rs 45.50 to wind up at 661 while Satyam Computer was up Rs 15.60 at 655.50. Cement major ACC looked up by Rs 13 at 948 while Castrol India and TELCO gained Rs 9 each to close at 948 and 166. Colgate and HCL infosystems moved up Rs 2.50 each to close at 190.50 and 279.50.

Share prices show small gains:

Share prices showed small gains over the last close on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here today on select buying. The S&P Improved further by 2.40 to close at 861.10 from the last close of 858.70. The Cnx Nifty Junior rose by 2.50 to end at 1460.70 from the previous close of 1458.20. The S&P Cnx Defty looked up by 2.10to finish at 701.50 from yesterday's close of 699.40. S&P Cnx 500 edged up by 1.13 to 586.43 from 585.30. However, Cnx midcap 200 eased by 0.81 to finish at 525.99 from the last close of 526.17. The total turnover was Rs 1,665.35 crore from 695.70 lakh shares and in 2,20,711 trades. Debentures traded value was Rs 27.84 lakh. The exchange witnessed 456 scrips advance, 495 scrips decline and 133 scrips remain.

Skindia Index decreases by 0.04 per cent:

The Skindia GDR index, representing GDR's of 18 actively trading companies decreased by 0.04 per cent from 565.76 to 565.55 on December 23, 1998 as per the Skindia GDR index with a base January 3, 1995 equal to 1000. The skindia GDR index P/E ratio was 15.87 as compared to 16.04, a Skindia Finance release said. HKstocks expect quiet trading ahead of New Year's holiday: Hong Kong's stock market is expected to trade quietlynext week ahead of the New Year, taking its cue from overseas counterparts, dealers said. The key Hang Seng index gained 65.97 pointsover the week shortened by the Christmas holiday to close at 10,292.20 on Thursday on average daily turnover of 2.97 billion Hong Kong dollars (384 million US).

Tokyo stocks fall along with government bonds:

Share prices in Tokyo fell 0.5 per cent Thursday for the third straight daily decline, shaken by a troubled Japanese government bond market, B rokers said. The Nikkei average of 225 leading issues fell 72.72 points from Tuesday's close to finish at 13,706.73.