Indian Stocks Week-in-Review - Week ending September 22, 2006
Although the SENSEX continued its upward climb the US traded ADR’s cooled off a little bit after a really good last week.
Dr. Reddy’s (NYSE: RDY) received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for hypertension drugs amlodipine maleate and benazepril hydrochloride capsules in multiple strengths. The company also acquired Spain’s generics pharmaceuticals producer Laboratoios Litaphar, S A.
Sify Ltd. (Nasdaq: SIFY) meanwhile is going to start Counter Strike Condition Zero (CZ) tourney at its Sify Gamedromes outfits. Around 10,000 gaming enthusiasts and seven million registered online users are expected to participate in this first ever National Online Tourney. Online gaming is still at a very early stage in India but is expected to top $200 million by 2010.
Sify last week also announced that it has tied up with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to make their online railway ticketing services available at over 3400 iWay cyber cafes across 154 cities in the country with cash payments. It is however not clear if this is an exclusive tie-up. The company stated in the press release, ‘The vast majority of Indians however, still prefer to make cash payments for tickets, goods or services. So it was imperative that a means be found for the large number of Indians without a credit card or a net banking facility to be able to make online rail ticket reservations and pay cash’. A person will have to pay a total surcharge of Rs 40 for online booking of a ticket (Rs 25 to Sify (which will probably be shared with the franchise owner) and Rs 15 to IRCTC), and about six tickets can be booked at a time with a single payment of surcharge. It’s pretty clear that Sify is looking for new ways to monetize its vast network of cyber cafes all over India.
Rediff (Nasdaq: REDF) has launched Rediff Faresearch, a travel search tool that helps users search and compare the lowest airfares across all domestic airlines, displaying results on the same page. The service will also be available via mobile phones.
Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) led the decline in Indian ADR’s this week. The automaker is making a headway into Argentina and plans to build a small economy car there using its alliance with Fiat.
Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Infosys Technologies (Nasdaq: INFY) with a ‘hold’ rating. Also, Infosys has partnered with a Philippine company to provide call center services to its customers.
Meanwhile, Wipro (NYSE: WIT) is working with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on the software development to enable video conferencing on Nokia’s new 3G handsets. Wipro also launched a new application based on SAP’s (NYSE: SAP) NetWeaver platform to facilitate the phasing out of legacy, third-party applications in a cost-effective way, from any system landscape.
Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Satyam Computers (NYSE: SAY) with a ‘hold’ rating.
Meanwhile, both ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN) and HDFC Bank (NYSE: HDB) took a break after a very strong last week.
* I am long SIFY and IFN
September 24th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
You should consider switching to IIF instead of IFN!
IFN is one of the most manipulated closed-end fund with buybacks, special event, rights offers etc. These ‘events’ (and there are many of them each year), drive cause the fund’s market price to NAV to fluctuate a lot - in other words, market timers are getting richer at your expense!
See this chart comparing IFN, IIF and BSE Index for the past 3 months - most of the performance difference is due to the rights offer and buyback offer during the period.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=IFN&t=3m&l=off&z=l&q=l&p=&a=&c=iif,%5EBSESN