• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

EVEN after reporting a good financial performance for the financial year 2002-03, some foreign broking firms are not optimistic about the future outlook of ONGC. This has led some of them to downgrade the stock to sell. The major factor for the bearish view is the current international oil prices, which are ruling high and the possibility of further rise looks doubtful. Another factor is the gas price, which is unlikely to be increased, as it is a politically sensitive matter, analysts said. The company sells crude at international price while the gas is sold at administered prices leading to loss in selling the gas. The firms believe that the international oil price to range between $24-25 per barrel.

The company, in the recently held analysts meet, had projected a stable growth in the current fiscal. There has been some selling from institutional investors following the downgrade.

The stock closed at Rs 482.80, down 1.08 per cent with volumes of 1.57 lakh shares on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock closed at Rs 483.50, down 0.99 per cent with volumes of 4.42 lakh shares.

Hopes on Tata Engg

AT a time when there are concerns over the equity dilution of Tata Engineering, some market players are very optimistic about the future outlook of the company.

The talks are that the company is on the verge of bagging a big export order for high tonnage trucks.

Dealers said there is a possibility of the company bagging export order for around 18,000-20,000 high tonnage trucks per annum for three years from South African government. This truck has already been soft launched in India and is being test marketed with various users.

The stock ended 2.37 per cent lower at Rs 197.65 with volumes of 5.64 lakh shares on BSE. On the NSE, Tata Engg closed at Rs 198.05, down 2.51 per cent with volumes of 21.92 lakh shares. The fall in the stock price was due to stock going ex-dividend (Rs 4 per shares) from Monday.

Sterlite Ind on fire ahead of delisting

STERLITE Industries has been on fire in the last three days. The stock has increased from Rs 213 to today's closing price of Rs 346.85, a rise of over 60 per cent. Even when most of the market players were surprised over the sudden spurt, a section of the market players said that the promoters of the company are mopping the stock.

One factor for the promoters buying the stock at higher price is to tempt the existing small shareholders to sell their shares so that the company may delist from the stock exchanges. Another talk is that two leading market players have cornered most shares from the market.

The stock closed at Rs 346.85, up 13.07 per cent with volumes of 91,138 shares on the BSE.

Virendra Verma

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
UTI Mastergrowth declares 12 pc dividend

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line