On renewed investment interest of the FIIs, Skindia GDR index recorded highest ever rise in a week of 179.10 points. It touched 52-week high with this rise. During the week the BSE Sensex also moved up by 323.17 points. FIIs in their hunt for attractive valuations have begun looking for Indian banking stock and therefore aggressive buying by foreign funds has made the Skindia GDR index and the BSE Sensex oscillate it an extremely wide band of 21.39 per cent and 9.72 per cent respectively.

During the week, FIIs have made a net purchases worth Rs 390.20 crore. Due to increased activity in the bourses the average spread of the 39 most actively traded GDRs has narrowed to 8.63 per cent on May 6 from 9.54 per cent on April 29, whereas the average premiums moved down to 13.36 per cent onMay 6 from 14.38 per cent on April 29.

According to a Skindia finance statement, during the week the 63 GDRs on an average gained by 28.81 per cent and the shares gained by 9.72 per cent. In the industry wise break up the GDRs from telecom sector was the highest gainer appreciating by 37.49 per cent followed by hotel and auto sector gaining by 21.62 per cent and 20.17 per cent respectively. There were only two losers namely, the textile and steel sectors shedding by 4.70 per cent and 4.57 per cent respectively. In underlying shares too the top gainer was the telecom sector with 18.65 per cent followed by IT with 16.31 per cent.During the week there were 36 gainers, 15 losers and 12 unchanged against the 12 gainers, 25 losers and 26 unchanged last week. The top gainers in GDRs during the week were Indian Hotels, VSNL and L&T while top losers were Core Healthcare, Jain Irrig and Crompton Greaves. In underlying shares the top gainers were State Bank of India, VSNL and L&T while the top losers were DCW, FlexIndustries and Hindustan Lev. In aluminium sector, after hitting five year low, the prices of aluminium have started looking up. Aluminium closed at $ 1360.00 a tonne on London Metal Exchange on May 6, 1999.

The rise is because people are not afraid to take fresh long positions. Taking the cue, the GDR and share price of the scrips in this sector moved up. The main beneficiary of this rise has been Hindalco with its GDR appreciating by 44.06 per cent since April 1999, against a rise of 22.26 per cent in the Skindia GDR index.

Indal GDR moved up by 17.36 per cent in the domestic markets share price of Hindalco appreciated by 24.02 per cent and that of Indal 27.04 per cent compared to a fall of 1.02 per cent in the BSE Sensex in the same period.