Interestingly, 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 the Fortune'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 by 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 Dec 10. During the same period, the spreads of the37 most actively traded GDRs narrowed down from 10.11% to 9.13 %.

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 market, 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% against its underlying stock price ofRs 183.30.