Institutions are viewing the scrip as a choice pick now. And hastening the pace up is the fact that there is lack of supply on the counter . As per market talk, Salomon Smith Barney had acquired around 1.75 lakh BSES shares yesterday. The company's management and Unit Trust of India were also believed to be active on the counter.

Meanwhile, there's much optimism held for the power sector now. The passage of the Electricity Bill in Parliament recenmtly has unfurled power sector reforms in three radical ways. It made the continued existence of bundled SEBs conditional , it has mandated open access in distribution apart from allowing parallel distribution systems to be set up where required and has extended the scope of captive generation to cooperative groups and associates.

Analysts say the Electricity Bill will see an improvement in the health of state electricity boards (SEBs). The Electricity Bill is a comprehensive legislation putting together all legislative measures required to push the power sector on to a trajectory of sound commercial growth. The bill takes into account the move towards a competitive scenario, where regulators on the one hand and private power utilities on the other shall play increasingly significant roles. The bill provides a comprehensive yet flexible legislative framework for power development.

In addition, the Union Budget has also been benevolent to the power sector through the thrust on infrastructure. Infrastructure development has been identified as one of the five key focus areas for future development. Emphasis has been placed on improvement in power distribution and attention on capacity addition. The government had , in 1999, notified 18 power projects as mega projects, conferring upon them various duty and licensing benefits. The government now proposes to liberalise the mega power project policy further by extending all these benefits to any power project that fulfills the conditions already prescribed for mega power projects.

The company has just rechristened itself Reliance Energy. Additionally, it has said that it will launch two separate arms - Reliance Energy Transmission and Reliance Energy Trading. While Reliance Energy Transmission will pursue opportunities in power transmission, Reliance Energy Trading will engage in power trading.

At the company's annual general meeting on 9 June 2003, newly appointed chairman Anil Ambani said the change in name will reflect the ownership by the Reliance group. He said the implementation of the Electricity Act has given the company the opportunity to participate in all segments of the power sector.

During the FY 2002-03 , BSES discontinued its previous policy of raising bills on customers on an estimated/provisional basis in cases where meter readings were not available. This change has resulted in withdrawals of bills aggregating Rs 134.61 crore raised in past periods, thereby benefiting around 2,70,000 customers. The corresponding credit of Rs 134.61 crore has been given to customers on reconciliation/settlement of accounts during the year.

As a result of the above, BSES posted a disappointing performance for the year - just a 1% rise in sales to Rs 2691.85 crore and a lower PAT by 42% to Rs 162.33 crore. However, even after excluding the impact of this change in billing policy, the performance of the company was none too encouraging. Without the change, BSES would have posted a 5% rise in total income to Rs 2,912 crore (US$ 613 million) and 6% rise in net profit to Rs 297 crore (US$ 63 million). Even this growth was due to a fall in provision for contingencies and doubtful debts.

As on 31 March 2003, Reliance Industries held 58.22% in BSES, while institutions and the public held 28.13% and 10.95% respectively.