Sebi to be overhauled
Mumbai: Sebi is to be overhauled. With this aim the ministry of finance has written to the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes as well as Sebi chairman D R Mehta asking them not to give extensions to any of the top Indian Revenue Service officials on deputation at Sebi, when their current terms come to an end.

Among the IRS officials the prominent ones are LK Singhvi, Sebi’s top investigator and executive director, Ashok Kacker, in charge of mutual funds,

C M Mehra, a customs department officer who looks after FIIs and administration among others,

Anita Kapur, who headed the northern region and whose term expires in May, R K Kakkar Sebi’s senior investigator and division chief whose current term expires in September 2002 and Salil Gupta, a New Delhi-based officer involved with investigations.

This leaves Sebi legal executive director Dharmishta Raval and executive director Pratip Kar from Mehta’s original team. They are the only two executive directors who are permanent Sebi employees.

The ministry of finance wants an entirely new team of top officials to be put in place at Sebi as the current team has been at the helm of affairs for the past six years.

The Sebi chief has been keen to keep his entire original team at Sebi till he himself goes after a two-year extension comes to an end in February next year.
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Sebi to head for Ahmedabad
Mumbai/Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Stock Exchange has become a matter of concern for Sebi which decided on Friday to depute a team to Ahmedabad in order to study the circumstances leading to virtual rioting by brokers and sub-brokers as well as beating up officials of the stock exchange there.

Sebi took the decision after it received two letters on manhandling of ASE officials on Thursday from its executive director Rajiv Desai and president Deepak Shah, Sebi sources said.

Some sub-brokers and brokers of ASE manhandled office-bearers and officials of the exchange after the circuit breaker for some of the stocks was brought down from the regular 8 per cent to 4 per cent on Thursday.

Small brokers and sub-brokers felt that they were put to disadvantage by the decision, which they felt favoured the big brokers serving as office-bearers of the Exchange.

At the opening stroke all the tech stocks were locked in the upper circuit filter of 4 per cent instead of the permitted 8 per cent, causing losses worth crore of rupees.

Sources at Sebi said its intention is to ascertain who has taken the decision to bring down the circuit filter on a scrip on Thursday and why they did so.

Meanwhile, Mr Desai, executive director, ASE, who was also manhandled by brokers on Thursday, put in his papers that very day and the governing board of the exchange has accepted his resignation.

Those manhandled include Mr Desai and surveillance department head Kalpesh Shukla.
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HLL, MTNL, ITC gainers in modest Index rise
Mumbai: With help from counters like Infosys, MTNL, HLL, ITC and Cipla, the index gained marginally. Although a small gain, sustaining at higher levels after a bounce of more than 500 points, is a positive development.

Overall, analysts say the index is likely to move in narrow range in the next two days. The level of 3675 is the first hurdle whereas 3530 points is an immediate base.

Among the heavy weights, HLL did well and showed a gain more than 2 per cent. In the process, the stock has come closer to its next resistance of Rs 224. The level of Rs 210 is first support for stock.

ITC also advanced and has come closer to its hurdle of around Rs 900. As for Reliance, a sideway move is likely to continue. So is the case with RPL.

The performance of MTNL was good and the next hurdle for the stock is only at around Rs 150. Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy are expected to move sideways.

Tisco too expected to form a narrow range. Cipla’s performance was also impressive to say the least. The stock gained 9 per cent and is close to its major hurdle of around Rs 1,225.

Bhel and SBI remained under pressure. The fall may show a slowdown on these two counters.
The cement counters witnessed selling pressure. For L&T, the position will weaken below Rs 207 whereas performance of Grasim is likely to be positive.

All key IT stocks — Infosys, Satyam Comp and Zee Tele displayed signs of tiredness on Friday. The rally slowed down as selling witnessed at higher levels. In case of Satyam Comp, the level of Rs 270 has become an important resistance.

For Zee Tele, the level of Rs 115 will act as first hurdle and in case of Infosys, the level of Rs 4,000 will continue to act as resistance. The level of Rs 3,700 should be used as stop loss for long positions.
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