Scandent lists at Rs190, surges to Rs223
Software firm Scandent Solutions listed at Rs190 on the bourses on Wednesday and shot to Rs223.80 within minutes of commencement of trading.

The stock closed at Rs206.20, with volumes accounting for more than 51.9 lakh shares on BSE.

Scandent Solutions Corporation has been formed by the merger of IT services business of SSI and Scandent Solutions.

Post the merger one new share of Scandent was issued for each share of SSI.

Scandent Group promoters own 42 per cent of the total equity in Scandent Solutions Corp and the balance is with the public.
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Sensex drops after a five-day rise
Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange index fell 0.3 per cent on Wednesday mainly on profit-booking after rising consecutively for five days. The Sensex closed below the 6,900-mark at 6,892.82, shedding 22.27 points.

The sensex opened on a weak note at 6,895.62, as against Tuesday's all-time closing high of 6,915.09 and dipped marginally before touching a new intra-day high of 6,954.86.

Thereafter, selling pressures brought the sensex to an intra-day low of 6,843.44. The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shed 8.15 points, closing at 2,160.80.

Analysts said that the correction was due for some time now as the markets were trading at high levels.

Ranbaxy Laboratories., India's top drugs maker, rose 3.2 per cent to Rs1,092 while Cipla Ltd. jumped 8.4 per cent to Rs295.5 .

Reliance Industries Ltd. fell 0.5 per cent to Rs587.4 . It denied TV reports of plans to merge with group firm Indian Petrochemicals Corp. Ltd.

Reliance, with the second-highest weightage in the Bombay-30 share index, had risen in the morning after a newspaper report said a mediator had put together a report that could help resolve a feud within the founding Ambani family.

Wipro fell 0.4 per cent to Rs714.3 — having been weighed down briefly due to a bomb hoax at one of its Bangalore offices.

Scandent Solutions, the former software unit of SSI bought by Scandent last year, debuted at Rs204 and hit a Rs228 high before easing to Rs206.65. It was one of the most heavily traded stocks on the exchange.

The total turnover on BSE and NSE was pegged at Rs2,943.90 crore and Rs5,700.62 crore, respectively. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers at Rs498.30 crore on Tuesday.

The BSE Consumer Durables index outperformed the other indices in falling. It shed 2.57 per cent or 40.56 points, at 1,536.8. BPL was down 4.71 per cent at Rs37.45, Titan Industries fell 2.82 per cent at Rs220.15 and Videocon was down 4.37 per cent at Rs64.60.

The banking sector on an upswing in the last few days also lost ground due to profit-booking. Vijaya Bank was down 6.12 per cent at Rs 69.85, Andhra Bank was down 3.45 per cent at Rs114.80 and ICICI Bank was down 2.06 per cent at Rs390.50. Union Bank touched a new low of Rs130.
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Bank stocks in high demand by FIIs
Foreign institutional investors' (FII) have been investing heavily in India's top 25 banks. FII holdings in banks have increased over 55 per cent from 79 crore shares in January 2004 to 122 crore shares in January 2005. Their bank holdings now account for 21 per cent or Rs32,931 crore of the total market capitalisation of Rs1,57,138 crore in January 2005.

The largest exposure of foreign portfolio investors was in ICICI Bank (Rs13,008 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs5,163 crore) and State Bank of India (Rs4,019 crore), Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda were the other banks with over Rs1,000-crore exposure.

As on January 31, 2005, FIIs held 122,63,85,672 shares in 25 banks, up from 78,93,40,406 shares at the end of January 2004.

The banks that have seen the highest increase in holdings by FIIs are Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank and IDBI Bank.

Bank holdings accounted for 25.6 per cent of total FII investment of Rs1,28,718 crore as on January 31, 2005.
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ABN Amro to issue IPO for Opportunities Fund
Mumbai: ABN Amro Bank has come out with an equity fund titled, Asset Management's Opportunities Fund, which opened for its initial public offer on Wednesday.

This open-ended equity fund will invest in scrips across market caps and sectors, company officials said.

The initial public offer of the scheme will close on March 30. The scheme has the flexibility to actively shift portfolio concentration between different market capitalisation buckets. The scheme also retains the flexibility to hold more concentrated investments in a few sectors than diversified equity funds.

Mihir Vora, head of equities, ABN Amro AMC is the fund manager for the scheme.
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Chola MF issues dividend on Mid-cap scheme
New Delhi: Chola Mutual Fund has issued a third dividend of 10 per cent on its Mid-cap scheme, which invests primarily in shares of companies that have a market capitalisation of Rs 300-3,000 crore.

Investors, who registered as unitholders as on March 14, would be eligible for the dividend, according to a statement by Chola.

Launched in August 2004, Chola had declared a maiden 10 per cent on November 24, 2004 and a second dividend of 10 per cent on January 24, 2005.
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Cipla zooms on speculation of stake sale
The stock of domestic pharma firm Cipla shot up sharply due to market expectations regarding either an acquisition abroad or plans by the promoters to off-load equity to multinational drug firms.

The stock price of Cipla gained 8.4 per cent at Rs295.50 on the BSE with volumes of 15.77 lakh shares and on the NSE, closed at Rs295.45, up 8.44 per cent, with volume of 43.60 lakh shares.

Analyst tracking the company said Cipla's promoters were planning to off-load equity to a multinational drug firm.
The names of companies doing the rounds were Israeli company Teva and French company Lab DB Pharma, were named as the suitors tipped to pick up equity in Cipla.

Amar Lulla, Cipla's joint managing director, however, denied both the reports. No reason was given for the optimism that was fuelling the stock price.

The Indian promoters hold about 41 per cent equity in Cipla.
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