MUMBAI, May 17: India was in the forefront of countries which tapped the overseas stock markets in the first quarter of 1997. Among the non-US countries, India came second in raising money from the overseas exchanges.

According to foreign fund managers, 23 non-US companies from 17 countries raised $ 2.2 billion through depositary receipts in the first quarter. Of the total amount raised, UK accounted for 23.50 %, followed by India with 21 % and Spain 14 %. The largest issue was floated by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) which raised $ 527 million followed by Telefonica of Spain ($ 299 million) and Royal Bank of Scotland of UK ($ 200 million).

After the VSNL GDR issue was floated in March, no other Indian company has raised money from the overseas markets. The major reason that prevented Indian companies from tapping overseas funds is the political uncertainty and change of government at the Centre.

Even though many public sector companies like IOC, BHEL, ONGC and GAIL had planned to float GDR issues, no company has made any effort on this front. Modiluft has put off its $ 60 million GDR issue for the second half of the year. The finance ministry has cleared REPL Engineering's $ 20 million Euro convertible bond issue.

The flow of poor corporate results from Indian companies has made foreign investors nervous. With expectations that the worst many not be over, marketmen abroad preferred to lie in the last few days. As a result, the Skindia GDR Index moved in a norrow range, losing for the third consecutive week.

As many as 64 GDRs lost 1.04 % on an average last week with 17 GDRs touching their 52-week lows. ``Lack of trading interest among marketmen abroad resulted in the average spreads of 64 GDRs increasing from 16.24 % last week to 18.08 %,'' said Skindia Finance.

Fund managers seem to be losing interest in B1 stocks as their GDRs and underlying shares have fallen over the last six months and are now at their 52-week lows. The GDR price of Core Parenterals ($0.75), Flex Industries ($4.00), Hindustan Development ($0.35), Indo Rama ($6.00), JK Corp ($ 1.00) Jain Irrigation ($1.00), JCT Ltd ($2.00), NEPC Micon ($0.30), Nippon Denro ($4.00), SIEL ($1.25), Sanghi Polyester ($ 1.25), SIV Industries ($0.75) and Tube Investment ($1.50) fell to their 52-week lows during the week.

In the last six months, these GDRs experienced average negative returns of 58.31 % although the Skindia GDR Index gained 18.37 %. ``Lack of trading interest in these stocks can be seen from the wide spread between their bids and offers. Average spread for these GDRs is 49.46 % compared to an average 17.98 % for the 64 GDRs,'' Skindia said.

Trading on the US exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX) totalled 2.70 billion depository receipts valued at $ 101.50 billion, represented a 20 % increase in dollar value compared with the first quarter of 1996. The most actively trade depositary receipts were Telebras (Brazil), Royal Dutch Petroleum (Netherlands) and Telefons (Mexico).

According to Skindia, Bajaj Auto experienced a 5.37 % increase in its net profit to Rs 440.57 crore. The announcement of Bajaj Auto results on May 14 along with news of a proposed bonus issue saw its GDR increase 5.69 % to $ 32.50 and the underlying share by 7.71 % to Rs 915.25. The turnover in the domestic market also shot up by over four times to Rs 33.16 crore.