Indian companies are chronically undervalued on the American exchanges and their market capitalisation could appreciate by between 50 per cent and 100 per cent by the simple expedient of taking steps to ensure greater coverage by analysts in the US.

That's the message being pounded home by David Weild, vice-president of Nasdaq, who is currently touring India to woo Indian companies to increase their visibility among the US-based research analysts.

"Indian companies are chronically under-covered by US-based analysts. Of the seven US-listed Indian companies, only Infosys has three US-based analysts covering it, while all others have only one analyst covering all of them," he told Business Standard.

In contrast, Israeli companies have about 97 analysts covering them, though the market capitalisation of the 73 US-listed Israeli companies is only $20 billion versus $26.4 billion for the top seven Indian companies.

"According to a Nasdaq study, one favourable call by one analyst pushes up the stock price 2.6 per cent. So the higher the number of analysts covering the company, the more the chances of a steep appreciation in price," Weild said.

Given this logic, the Infosys Technologies ADR can appreciate about 84 per cent from its current price of about $73 and the Wipro ADR can appreciate by about 100 per cent from its current price of $35.43, Weild said.

"Indian companies have far more operational advantages. The cost-effectiveness is huge. If Indian companies manage to get higher coverage by analysts, it will also help in increasing their business because even American companies that have comparatively much higher costs could increase their outsourcing," Weild said.

"Indian companies have not been so vibrant in post-listing activities. It should be kept in mind that stocks are not bought but are sold. So marketing is very important. Listing the stocks on exchanges is not enough. If US-based analyst coverage has to be increased, a lot of interaction from the investment bankers to the issue should be forthcoming on behalf of the companies," Weild said.

"Indian companies have no problem in getting analyst coverage at home and it certainly should not be difficult in the US," he said.

"Companies should prioritise to increase their visibility on the Nasdaq. It will help improve the liquidity also. We as an exchange have always been striving hard to get higher visibility for Indian companies," Weild said.