Markets rocket back up
Mumbai: Riding piggy back on the action of the finance ministry stopping the income tax action on FIIs, the markets took an upward surge and moved a huge 352 points for the BSE sensex to close at 5,219 points. Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty index opened at 1453.30, hit a high of 1558.05, and ended the day at 1557.15 _ a gain of 104.20 points over the previous close of 1452.95.

The frenzy was driven by FIIs who took a big plunge in the market. The upward surge was also a result of a rebound on Nasdaq, with whose movement the movement of the Indian bourses seem inextricably linked. The Infosys ADR (Infy) was the top gainer on the Nasdaq on Thursday, rising $51 to end at $248. On Friday, it was quoting at $276 at 9 p.m. (IST). Its domestic share gained Rs. 674.80 before being frozen at Rs. 9,110.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. In the three days to Tuesday it had fallen 15 per cent, but has since rallied 21 per cent.

At the BSE, SSI, Wipro, Satyam Computers, Infosys, Hughes Software, Himachal Futuristic, Pentafour Software, Aptech Ltd were on top of the list of buys.

The sensex surge would have been bigger had so many stocks not hit the upper circuit breaker, which effectively put a stop to trading in those stocks. More than 400 scrips on the BSE and 247 scrips on the NSE hit the upper circuit.
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SEBI relaxes issue norms for media and entertainment companies
Mumbai: In a move that is definitely likely to provide an impetus to the primary markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has relaxed the public issue norms for knowledge based companies in the media, entertainment and telecom sectors. Sebi has allowed companies in these sectors to offer only 10 per cent shares to the public through the IPO. These sectors, thus, join the IT sector where the concession already prevails. Sebi has, however, prescribed that a minimum of 20 lakh shares must be offered to the public and the size of the net offer to the public shall not be less than Rs. 50 crore.

In a related move, Sebi has also allowed mutual funds to invest in securities backed by mortgages, paving the way for them to invest in the housing sector.

The regulator has also altered the guidelines for book-building issues to cap the allocation to institutional investors to 60 per cent of the book-built portion. The book-runner will now be required to only disclose the floor price as an indicative price. Online display will also be mandatory for all issues done through the book-building route.

The SEBI has also decided to cap the allocation of shares to institutional investors under a 100 per cent book-built issue at 60 per cent of the book-built portion. The institutional investors here would include banks, foreign institutional investors (FIIs), mutual funds, and other financial institutions as defined in Section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956. The SEBI has also permitted more bidding centres at all cities with stock exchanges for 100 per cent one-stage book building. The present system of allowing 75 per cent of the issue through book-building will continue. The fixed price issue portion applicable for the balance 25 per cent of the issue will continue to be available to individual investors applying for more than 1,000 shares.The SEBI has also said that data entry of bids shall be on a real-time basis. Availability of information about the demand at different price levels would thus be assured to facilitate genuine price discovery, the SEBI officials felt.
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BSE allows for lower threshold limit for listing
Mumbai: The governing board of the Bombay Stock Exchange has reduced the threshold limit to Rs. 3 crores of minimum issued equity capital for companies listed on other stock exchanges and seeking listing on BSE. The earlier limit had been set at minimum issued equity capital of Rs. 5-10 crores.

Other criteria include that the company has a profit-making record of at least three years. The minimum market cap of the listed capital should be Rs. 20 crores, based on average price of last six months. Coupled with this the minimum average volume traded per day during the last three complete months should be 1,000 shares and minimum five trades per day.

Minimum 25 per cent of the company's issued capital should be with public (inclusive of bodies corporate) and minimum 15 shareholders per Rs. 1 lakh of capital in the public category. Lastly, the company should be agreeable to sign an agreement with CSDL and NSDL for demat trading etc.
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