MUMBAI, Aug 17: Divergent trends were witnessed in the primary and secondary market during the month of July 1997. The primary market continued to be sluggish, but the secondary market witnessed a buoyant sentiment resulting in positive returns for the second consecutive month.According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), there were just three public issues floated in July 1997, the lowest in any month since June 1991 when only one public issue hit the market. Also, it was down from 19 issues in June 1997, 10 issues in May and 21 issues in April this year.The three public issues floated in July 1997 collectively raised a paltry sum of Rs 3.75 crore as against Rs 178 crore raised in the previous month. On the other hand, the secondary market continued to remain buoyant resulting in positive returns for the second consecutive month, though the returns were sharply lower when compared with the returns in June 1997. The equally weighted CMIE Share Price Index gave a return of 18.4 per cent in July against June 1997's 6.55 per cent. The BSE 30-share sensitive index gave returns of a meagre 1.2 per centAlso, the number of public issues in July was the lowest in the first four months of the current fiscal which saw a total of 124 public issues, 74 per cent lower than the 406 public issues that hit the market in the corresponding period last year. In June 1997, 19 public issues hit the market against 128 issues in June 1996. May 1997 had 10 issues against 76 issues in May 1996 and April 1997 saw 21 issues against 105 in April 1996. In terms of value, the first four months witnessed a collection of Rs 8,145 crore being raised from the capital market, a shade lower than Rs 8,231 crore collected in the corresponding period last year. This included an almost equal number of rights issues in the first four months of 1996-97 and 1997-98 at 76 and 71 respectively.Of the total resources raised in the first four months of 1997-98, 73.4 per cent came in the form of debt instruments, many of them placed privately.The companies which raised debt funds from the private placement market included Housing & Urban Development Corporation (Hudco - Rs 500 crore), Ashok Leyland (Rs 150 crore), Gujarat Industries Power Co (Rs 50 crore plus greenshoe of Rs 50 crore) and Anagram Finance (Rs 50 crore).
