Date:30/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/12/30/stories/2004123002371300.htm

Back Imports sweeten them

SELECT sugar companies are expected to have bumper current financial year. This is due to the import of raw sugar by these companies, which in turn can be sold in the domestic market after refining.

Some of the companies, which have imported more than one lakh tonnes of raw sugar in this fiscal, are Thiru Arooran Sugar, EID Parry, Sakthi Sugar and Dhampur Sugar.

The talk is that these companies have imported raw sugar at around Rs 13,500 per tonne and after refining they can sell in the domestic market. Based on the current market price of around Rs 18,000 per tonne, these companies are expected to make good profits.

On these expectations, there is an accumulation in the stock of these companies.

On Wednesday, Thiru Arooran Sugar gained 8.11 per cent at Rs 137.30 on the BSE; EID Parry was up 0.86 per cent at Rs 400; and Sakthi Sugar gained 1.54 per cent at Rs 46.10. However, the Dhampur Sugar stock declined marginally to close at Rs 78.75.

Margin hopes keep it shine

The shares of non-ferrous metal company Hindalco Industries have been accumulated by a section of the market ahead of its third quarter results.

The talk is that several top broking firms are advising their clients to buy the shares as the copper business margins are expected to be good in the current quarter. Even the margin from the company's aluminium business is expected to be good.

On Wednesday, the stock price of the company was up 3.2 per cent at Rs 1,413.90 on the BSE with volumes of 88,779 shares; on the NSE, it closed at Rs 1,423.90, up 3.94 per cent, with volumes of 2.81 lakh shares.

Betting on IT

ON a day when most of the sectors stocks closed in the red, IT sector bucked the trend. This was seen from the positives gains of the BSE-IT index and CNX-IT Index.

The BSE IT Index gained 0.37 per cent and the CNX-IT Index 0.16 per cent - the highest gains among all sector indices.

Dealers said buying in the sector is on expectation that margins are being sustained by these companies despite appreciating rupee against the US dollar. Last week, a leading foreign broking firm had downgraded the IT sector on fears of pressure margins. But most of the market players have not followed the broking advice.

Virendra Verma