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Japanese join party at Indian markets
Mumbai: In late June, the index broke through the 7,000 mark for the first time and has now pushed past 7,300. This headlong charge is primarily due to the infusion of funds from abroad.

Billions of dollars have poured into the Indian stock market from abroad in the last two years, with $6.6 billion arriving in 2003 and $8.5 billion in 2004. So far this year, $5.1 billion has already flowed into the Indian stock markets.

The India story is the next big thing after China, with the Indian economy reflecting a dynamism that is no longer so evident in the mature economies. Europe is growing at between 2 to 4 percent compared with the Indian growth rate of 6 percent to 7 percent annually. They impression amongst investors abroad is that India today is where China was 10, 15 years ago.

The latest developed country to join the party at the Indian bourses is Japan, where India funds are now attracting investors in droves.

Until December 2002, HSBC Asset Management's India fund, the oldest Indian specific fund, was at a modest $90 million. It surged to $824 million the following year and to $2.59 billion by December 2004, thanks to an increased interest from European and American investors. The offshore fund, registered in Luxembourg, now stands at close to $3 billion, the largest India fund in the world.

When Nomura Asset Management started an Indian stock fund in mid-June, demand was so strong that it had to suspend sales after subscription reached ¥100 billion, or $900 million, in just one week. Since last fall, when Indian funds began to pop up, Japanese individual investors have poured a total of about ¥400 billion into the country's stock funds.

Japanese fund managers say that the Japanese market has been going through an adjustment, while the Indian share market has been clearly showing a strong movement.

The appeal is now widening across the Asian region with Hong Kong based asset management company, First State now planning to offer its India funds to Hong Kong investors.

A cause for worry for the foreign fund managers is the fact that the Indian market appears fully valued now after the recent run-up, with the shares at their highest forward price/earnings ratio in recent history. They say that the market is fairly valued and from this point on, it will follow earnings growth. The managers are looking at 15 percent earnings growth per annum and on average that should be the return for the market.

Some of the global investors' favorites include Infosys Technologies, Reliance Group and ONGC.
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Assocham study: Union Bank provides highest returns
New Delhi: The Union Bank of India has provided the returns to investors in the banking stocks in 2004-05 with returns of 124 per cent followed by UTI Bank (62 per cent) and HDFC Bank (45 per cent), an Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India Eco Pulse (AEP) study has revealed.

Interestingly, the study of the top 10 banking stocks indicated that while the overall returns nose-dived from 146 per cent last year to 29 per cent in 2004-05, the rewards were reasonably good. The sharp rise in returns from 25 per cent in 2002-03 to 146 per cent in 2003-04 could not be sustained in 2004-05 because of a very high base.

The Oriental Bank of Commerce, which was the best performer giving an impressive 390 per cent returns in 2003-04, has slipped to the ninth position on the list with just 4 per cent returns in the year under review.

Likewise, Punjab National Bank, which had given handsome returns of 240 per cent and was among the best three performers in 2003-04, slipped to seventh position with 19 per cent returns.

State Bank of India, country's largest bank, has also gone down in its ranking from seventh to eighth with a sharp decline in returns from 128.09 per cent to 11 per cent.
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Suzlon Energy files prospectus for IPO
Mumbai: Suzlon Energy, manufacturers of wind turbine generators, has filed its prospectus with SEBI for an initial public offering (IPO) for 2.93 crore shares of Rs10 each, at a price to be determined through the 100 per cent book building route.

Of the total issue, 2.67 crore equity shares will be fresh equity from the company, while Citicorp International Finance Corporation Inc will offer 25.77 lakh equity shares for sale, a company release has said.

The IPO will constitute 10.2 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid-up capital. The post-issue paid-up equity capital of Suzlon will stand at Rs287.53 crore.

Suzlon is India's leading manufacturer of wind turbine generators.
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BEML clears Rs.400 crore public issue
Bangalore: Shareholders of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) at an EGM held here, have approved the company's proposed public issue of 72 lakh shares to raise Rs400 crore. The issue will be subject to approvals from the Government, SEBI, RoC, and other statutory bodies.

The premium at which the issue will be made will be decided through the book-building process.

While ten per cent of the issue will be reserved for existing shareholders, another 10 per cent will be reserved for the employees. Through another resolution, an increase in the authorised share capital from Rs60 crore to Rs100 crore has also been approved.

For 2004-05, the board has recommended the issue of 100 per cent dividend, including 15 per cent interim dividend already paid.
He added that the company had positioned itself well in the three business segments of Defence, Railways, and mining and construction.

It is expected to make improve profits and clock a turnover of over Rs 2,200 crore in the current year, a BEML release said.
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Canexpo declares 25 per cent dividend
Mangalore: The Canbank Mutual Fund has declared 25 per cent dividend under the Canexpo scheme, an open-ended equity-oriented sectoral scheme.

A Canbank Mutual Fund press release said here that this is the first dividend during the current financial year under the income plan. The investment objective of the scheme is to achieve capital appreciation by predominantly investing in equities of companies with substantial forex earnings.

The release said that August 2 has been fixed as the record date for income distribution. The books of the scheme shall remain closed on August 3 and 4.
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