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FM's views on stock fallNEW DELHI -- Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said the fall in stock prices in the last two days was purely bas...

FM8217;s views on stock fall

NEW DELHI 8212; Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said the fall in stock prices in the last two days was purely based on market sentiments and had nothing to do with economic fundamentals. 8220;As business is dependent on fundamentals, it is equally dependent on the sentiments,8221; Sinha said reacting to the fall of about 230 points in BSE Sensex since Tuesday.

Asked if the sentiments were down due to prevailing political uncertainity or economic slowdown, the finance minister said the market sentiments were down on all fronts. He said to restore confidence in the market, political stability was of utmost importance, as economic stability was dependent on political stability.

Addressing a meeting on Agenda for the new government8217; organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry FICCI here, Sinha said restoring confidence was the collective responsibility of all involved and not just political parties.

GIC Growth Plus II made openended

MUMBAI 8212; GIC Growth Plus II scheme has been converted into an open-ended scheme with effect from April 23. The units will be offered for fresh sales at NAV plus a sales charge of 3 per cent whereas repurchase will be at NAV minus a repurchase charge of 3 per cent. The mediclaim and personal accident cover under the scheme is being discontinued on the conversion of the scheme to an open ended one but will continue for the existing unitholders till May 31. The units will be delisted from BSE as on June 1 after the conversion.

Demat facility for US-64 scheme

MUMBAI 8212; India8217;s largest mutual fund scheme, Unit Scheme-64 US-64 of the Unit Trust of India UTI can now be held in the electronic form with effect from Thursday. Pursuant to the agreement signed between UTI and National Securities Depository Limited NSDL, unitholders have to approach a depository participant DP with a request for dematerialisation after opening accounts with them.

With this facility nowavailable, the liquidity of the units would increase, a UTI release said here today. The facility would be extended to the prospective unitholders from July, 1998.

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Unitholders who are under the reinvestment RI plan are required to approach the concerned UTI branch for getting the RI statement converted into a certificate before approaching the DP for demat. The registrar to UTI, MCS Ltd, would continue to offer various services in the depository environment in respect of units offered for demat, the release added.