Bangalore: Shares of
Indian companies trading on American bourses took a severe beating last month, as their overall market valuation tumbled by nearly $6 billion during March 2012 amid gloomy global market conditions.
During the month, the 15 Indian entities listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq saw their cumulative market value plummet by a staggering $5.69 billion. This followed a collective loss of about $120 billion during entire 2011.
While companies like Tata Motors and Sterlite Industries witnessed considerable decline in their valuations, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, WNS Holdings and Genpact witnessed an increase in their respective market capitalisation in March 2012.
"Indian ADRs gave negative return to investors in March as the counters performed poorly due to the decline in the Indian equity market," CNI Research Head Kishor Ostwal said.
American Depository Receipts (ADRs) are bought and sold on American markets just like stocks and are issued by a bank or brokerage firm.
WNS' market capitalisation rose by $47 million to $536 million, while that of Genpact grew by $40 million to $3.63 billion. Besides, the valuations of Dr Reddy's Laboratories surged by $25.67 million to $3.63 billion.
Although, the US market also saw a decline during March, the performance of Indian ADRs mostly mirror the trends in the Indian stock markets, Ostwal noted.
In March, the US benchmark index Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost about 1.79% to close at 13,212 points, whereas India's key 30-share Sensex index lost 2% to 17,404.20 points.
State-run telecom firm MTNL, which has been facing tough competition from rivals, was the worst performer among the ADRs in terms of the erosion in value on a percentage basis, while Tata Motors was the worst-hit in absolute terms.
Tata Motors saw its market capitalisation falling by $2.47 billion to a total of $85.6 billion, while that of Sterlite Industries plunged by $1.3 billion $7.18 billion.
In the banking sector, ICICI Bank's market capitalisation tumbled by $830 million to $20 billion, while that of HDFC Bank went down by $179 million to $26.61 billion.
Among technology majors, Infosys witnessed a loss of $486 million in market value to $32.6 billion, Wipro's valuation declined by $269 million to $26.88 billion and Patni saw a fall of $36 million to $1.27 billion.
Tata Communications' ADRs lost $106 million, while MTNL was down by $85 million to $321 million.
The valuations of Sify Technologies and Reddif.Com fell by $28 million and $3.52 million respetively, to $173 million and $185 million.
EXLService Holdings saw a loss of $11 million in market capitalisation to $862 million.
