JK Corp on Thursday created its 52-week high at Rs 81.90 and closed at Rs 79.70, up 11.55 per cent.

According to market sources, the stock is being accumulated by a section of players ahead of a proposed de-merger of its investment wing. The traded quantity in the counter on Thursday was more than 10 lakh shares on the BSE. The latest annual report suggested hiving off its investments, particularly in other group companies, into a separate entity.

The market expectation was that the existing shareholders would get one share in the new investment entity for one held in JK Corp now.

According to analysts, the JK Corp's 3 million tpa cement business is valued by the market approximately at Rs 150 a share considering its replacement value and deduction of total borrowings. On the other hand, the company's total investments in several group companies are valued at around Rs 140 crore.

Fund buying buoys it

Mercator Lines is understood to have attracted substantial buying on Thursday from Sonata Investments, speculated to be an investment outfit of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprise. Earlier, on September 1, Sonata had bought 18 lakh shares of Mercator through block deals at an average price of Rs 117 a share. The stock on Thursday closed at Rs 141.95, up 9.78 per cent, with traded volumes of 10.78 lakh shares on the BSE. The two-week average daily traded quantity of the stock on the BSE has been 13.33 lakh shares.

Active on takeover talk

Is Bell Ceramics a likely takeover target? The market rumour suggests so. The Street talk doing the rounds is that a strategic buyout is looming large on the company.

According to market sources, steady accumulation in the counter, one of the cheapest among the ceramics stocks, was on. The stock has been witnessing significant traded volumes of late. In the past two weeks, the average daily volumes in the counter on the BSE have been 3.16 lakh shares.

Jayanta Mallick

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