The GDR market witnessed selective buying with the GDRs of Infosys Technologies and Bajaj Auto emerging favourities. During the week under review the Skindia GDR Index gained a modest 8.39 points to close at 769.83 points against the June 3 close of 761.44 points - a gain of 1.10 per cent.

But for the cautious approach taken by the investors due to tension on the Kargil border, the rise in the GDR index would have been much more, says a Skindia Finance release. During the week while the Skindia GDR Index premium fell to 13.55 per cent from its June 3 level of 17.02 per cent, average premium on 63 GDRs came down to 3.91 per cent from 6.04 per cent the previous week.

The week also witnessed foreign and domestic institutions buying into select cyclical stocks. The GDRmarket saw Ashok Leyland at $4.70, L&T at $14.98 and Mahindra & Mahindra at $6.55 pick their respective 52-week highs during the week ended June 10.

While the premium commanded by the Infosys GDR price over its domestic (BSE) stock price of Rs 3,200 was at a high of 42.8 per cent, for the Bajaj Auto GDR the corresponding premium was at 30.6 per cent over its BSE close of Rs 835.65. The two top gainers in the GDR market were Bombay Dyeing with a gain of 38.2 per cent and India Cements with 33.3 per cent, the two top losers, on the other hand, were Ispat Inds with a decline of 15.79 per cent and Core Healthcare with a 14.29 per cent decline. According to the Skindia Finance release, during the current fiscal, ICICI is one company which has silently caught the fancy of investors, both in the GDR and the domestic markets.

Between April 1 and June 10, the ICICI GDR has gained in value by a whopping 57.89 per cent to $9.75 compared to a 17.54 per cent rise in the Skindia GDR Index.

During the same period, inthe domestic market the ICICI scrip appreciated 61.28 per cent to Rs 72.90 against a 10.04 per cent rise in Sensex. However, the price difference between the ICICI GDR and the domestic share price has consistently remained around the 19 per cent to 20 per cent range during the period under review, with the GDR commanding a premium over its domestic price.