Gesco scrip rises in anticipation of counter-offer
Mumbai: In anticipation of a counter offer being made by the Sheth family to retain control of their company, Gesco Corporation, the share price of the company rose a whopping 25 per cent at the markets.

The A H Dalmia Group company, Renaissance Estate - together with Mr. Sanjay Bakshi, a person acting in concert - had announced an open offer to acquire 45 per cent of Gesco’s equity. The market reckoning is that the Sheths, will have no option but to make a counter-offer to the open offer being made by Renaissance. Since the share value of Gesco has exceeded the open offer price, analysts expect the counter-offer to be made at a much higher price.

The stock price of Great Eastern Shipping, the flagship company belonging to the Sheths, also went up on rumours that company may opt for a buyback of its own shares to shore up the stake of the promoters, which is currently said to be around 12 to 13 per cent in both companies.
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Wipro makes it debut at NYSE
Mumbai: After some days of worry on the issue price, Indian software major, Wipro Limited, finally made its debut on the New York stock exchange. The software services company has raised $113.8 million from the issue of 2.75 million shares. Each ADS represent one local share.

Listed under the ticker symbol ‘WIT’, the scrip began trading at a premium of 7.7 per cent to the offer price of $41.375 per American Depository Shares. The final pricing of the ADS is at a 21 per cent discount to the earlier revised price of $52.48.

The Wipro stock plummeted nearly 20 per cent to around Rs 2,450 around October 12 at the time of the beginning of road shows from a high of Rs 3,300 a couple of weeks ago.

Wipro chairman, Mr. Azim Premji, got the unique opportunity of being only the second person in the long history of the stock exchange, to ring the opening and closing bell.
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ICICI ADR touches all-time low of $7.56
Mumbai: While Wipro made waves with its debut at the NYSE, leading Indian financial institution, ICICI, saw its ADR on the NYSE reach its lowest since it began trading on 22 September 1999.

The ICICI ADR, which was listed on the NYSE at a price of $9.8 and touched a high of $46 on February 23, 2000. reached its lowest point in the last one year by touching $7.56 on October 17.

According to Ms. Kalpana Morparia, senior general manager of ICIC, the domestic share price of ICICI is getting reflected in the ADR price. Reports about the possible reverse merger between ICICI and ICICI Bank have not gone too well with the investors and this has resulted in a hammering both ICICI and ICICI Bank scrips in the local bourses, which has had its repercussions on the NYSE.
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Sebi to plead for more power and to examine changes in takeover code
Mumbai: The chairman of the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Mr. DR Mehta, had a meeting with the finance minister to seek more powers for the regulatory authority to give it more teeth in today’s circumstances.

He also stated that Sebi would be inviting further recommendations for bringing changes in the takeover code.

The Bhagwati committee on takeover code was looking into the developments of Arun Bajoria’s concerted attempt to acquire a major stake in Bombay Dyeing and the affair had underlined the need for amending the code to make it fool-proof.
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