India Inc loses $5.7 bn on US bourses in first week of 2008

The new year has begun on a strong note for Indian bourses where the companies have added more than $60 billion  to their market value, but it has been an inauspicious beginning for Indian firms in the US market.

A total of 16 Indian companies listed in the US, which includes IT giants like Infosys, Wipro and Satyam, have lost close to $6 billion in the first week of trade on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

There have been just three days of trading in 2008 in New York as January 1 was a holiday in the US, while the Indian bourses have conducted four trading sessions so far this year.

In the first four days of trading, the total market capitalisation of all the Indian companies on domestic bourses rose by Rs 2,66,706 crore ($67 billion) to a record high of Rs 74,36,689 crore (close to $1.9 trillion).

However, the Indian companies have seen their market value on the US bourses plummeting to $131.8 billion, from $137.5 billion at the end of 2007.

There are 16 Indian companies listed in the US, including HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Satyam, Wipro, Patni Computer, Dr Reddy's, Sterlite, MTNL, VSNL, internet companies Rediff and Sify and outsourcing majors Genpact, WNS and Exlservice.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, the benchmark index of the US stock market, slid by 3.5 per cent during the week as against about two per cent gain in the Sensex, the barometer index of the Indian stock market.

In terms of percentage, Exlservice Holdings Inc has recorded the biggest loss of about 19 per cent, while Infosys, Satyam, Sify, Wipro, Rediff, WNS, HDFC bank, VSNL, Genpact, Dr Reddy's and Patni also saw their market values dipping.

All the major IT scrips saw a fall of more than seven per cent, led by Satyam Computer (over 10 per cent), while Wipro and Satyam lost about eight per cent and seven per cent respectively.

Leading pharmaceutical firm Reddy's Laboratories saw more than a three per cent decline, whereas Tata group's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd lost eight per cent.

However, a total of four companies saw their market values growing during the week, led by state-run MTNL (about seven per cent). Tata Motors gained close to three per cent, while India's biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank and NRI billionaire Anil Agrawal-promoted Sterlite Industries gained about one per cent each.