Date:11/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/11/stories/2005011102061300.htm

Back Metalman Industries: Up on backward integration

STOCK price of Metalman Industries, a company engaged in manufacturing cold-rolled sheets and coils, gained on Monday. The stock gained 3.88 per cent at Rs 36.10 on the BSE with a volume of 4.38 lakh shares.

Dealers said the rise in the stock price came after a domestic broking firm came out with a `buy' recommendation on the stock.

This firm is bullish on the stock as the company is implementing a backward integration. This is expected to enable it to considerably improve its utilisation levels and take advantage of the favourable business conditions.

The talk is that in the current fiscal, the company is likely to report an EPS of around Rs 12 and based on this, the stock is highly undervalued.

Currently, high net-worth individuals and some retail investors are buying the stock.

Jumps on FIIs' interest

MOUNT Everest Mineral Water stock is being accumulated by a section of the market. If market talk is to be believed, a few FIIs are accumulating the stock.

Earlier also, FIIs had bought the shares of the company. The main reason for the FIIs' interest is said to be that Mount Everest is the only listed company, which is engaged in the business of bottled water.

Bottled water business is seen as a potential growth area as several multinational companies such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Nestle have already ventured into this segment in India.

On Monday, the stock price of the company gained 9.8 per cent at Rs 22.40 on the BSE with volumes of 1.30 lakh shares.

Index selling pulls down market

THE stock market once again witnessed the post lunch fever, which pulled down the leading stock indices.

Dealers said major selling in the market came after 2 PM. The talk is that several FIIs based in the UK sold the index. Selling was mainly in the BSE Sensex and the NSE's Nifty. Some selling in Bankex Index was also heard.

The talk is that several FIIs are not comfortable with the Indian market at current levels. Along with the selling by FIIs, several big domestic players also sold the indices. One main reason for heavy selling is the huge open interest positions in the derivatives market.

Several FIIs have gone long again in the derivatives segment and sold in the cash segment on Monday, which was reverse of what they did on Wednesday last week.

Virendra Verma