Street signs: HDFC Bank ADR premium drops, SBI AMC bets on shares, and more

HDFC Bank ADR premium narrows

The premium between HDFC Bank's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and its local shares has dropped to multi-year lows. The ADR premium fell to single-digits as HDFC Bank issued new shares worth over $2.3 billion. The average premium this month is 11 per cent compared to 16 per cent last month. The drop in premium comes despite rupees weakness against the dollar. Market experts say the drop in premium is not an indication of dipping popularity of HDFC Bank among foreign investors. “A lot of investors subscribed to new shares. This is weighing on the secondary market demand,” said an analyst.

Samie Modak

Sun Pharma back on investors’ radar

Pharma major, Sun Pharma, seems to be attracting a lot of investor attention in the past couple of weeks. The stock has risen from Rs 554 on August 10 to Rs 623 on August 17 – a rise of 12.45 per cent in less than a week. The stock’s rise has been helped by a lot of good news around the company, including US FDA’s clearance for the Halol plant and its ophthalmic drug CEQUA (cyclosporine ophthalmic solution). Fund managers say that the sector’s overall outlook is improving for the past few months. “This sector would be a good bet in coming times when the market conditions are likely to be volatile,” says a fund manager.

Joydeep Ghosh

SBI AMC ups its bet on SBI shares
 

At a time when state-owned banks are being shunned by investors, fund house SBI Mutual Fund has made a fresh purchase of 16 million shares of its parent, State Bank of India (SBI). According to data, around 14 million shares were purchased by SBI Equity Hybrid Fund. At the current market rate, acquisition of 16 million shares of the country's biggest lender would cost Rs 4.8 billion. Another fund house that added SBI shares to its portfolio was Aditya Birla Sun Life, which bought 10 million shares. On the other hand, country’s top two fund houses by assets — ICICI Prudential and HDFC AMC trimmed their exposure to the stock during July, data show.

Pavan Burugula