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

Jayanta Mallick

KOLKATA, Sept. 6

UNITED Phosphorus today attracted significant buying from some of the foreign institutional investors aided by local operators on the major exchanges.

Traded volumes in the stock on the Bombay Stock Exchange shot up to 38,03,863 shares on Friday from 8,44,765 shares recorded on Thursday. On the National Stock Exchange, the counter saw 51,77,031 shares changing hands.

According to market analysts and brokers, FIIs went for bulk buying through a number of block deals. "The stock is also known to be operator-driven," said a dealer in an institutional broking firm.

According to Mr Mathew Easow of matheweasow.com, the stock currently looks good on the technical charts. "The stock has crossed a major price resistance level of Rs 137. At a price of Rs 139, its P/E came around 9.6," Mr Easow observed.

Mr Ajay Jaiswal of Lohia Securities said that the revival of monsoon in late August had enhanced earning prospects for United Phosphorus during the current fiscal. "Earlier, the market had factored in the delayed monsoon and discounted the earnings expectations by about 30 per cent for 2002-03. But revival of monsoon in various parts of the country has prompted many analysts to scale down the apprehended revenue losses to around 20 per cent."

Mr Arun Kejriwal, a market analyst, said the SSKI had made positive recommendation for the stock some time ago and select overseas funds had reportedly been showing interest in the counter.

According to market players, the stock had a decent run in April-May. "The first quarter result of the company also had enthused the market. However, the monsoon worries had seen the counter weaken somewhat in the first three weeks of August," a NSE dealer pointed out.

The stock today closed at Rs 144.65 on the NSE and at Rs 141.45 on the BSE with a gain of 9.68 per cent and 7.08 per cent over the respective previous closing prices.

The current recovery in the stock began from August 29 from a level of Rs 114.

The 52-week high of the stock is Rs 176.35 and low is Rs 27 on the NSE.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Sundaram Mutual debt fund has low expense ratio

Copyright © 2002, 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