Cement Stocks Rally, Vishal IPO up 180%

123jump.com Staff
04 Jul, 2007
New York City

Sensex closed up 0.5% to 14,880, record close for the third day in a row on rising cement stocks. ACC surged 7% on the news that cement companies have hiked prices effective today. Cement companies have ignored government please of price control The central governement for the last four months had sought price control. Vishal Retail soared on firt day in trading a day after Spice Telecom priced its IPO. Indiabull Real Estate prices its GDR at $10.32.

[R]6:00PM Mumbai – 7:30AM New York – Cement stocks lead Sensex to record close for the third day in a row. Vishal IPO soars 180% and Indiabull Real Estate prices GDR at $10.32.[/R]

Sensex 30 Index in Mumbai trading increased 73.73 or 0.5% to close at 14,880.24, third record in a row.

The index opened up and quickly jumped to a new high after fifteen minutes of trading. The volatile index fell in the afternoon trading to recover from the low of the day. Broader market failed to participate in the advance with 1,445 stocks declining, 1,219 gaining and 68 remaining unchanged. The Sensex index has added 3.1% in the last five days. The turnover on BSE declined to Rs 4,742 crore from Rs 4,948 crore from a day ago.


IPO News

Vishal Retail soared on its first day of trading. The apparel retailer with a network of locations in suburban malls in more than 20 cities jumped 179% at close. The IPO priced at 270 rupees, opened at 472 rupees and touched 809 before settling at 752 rupees.

Indiabull Real Estate Ltd completed its offering of $400 million by selling global depository receipt. The receipt priced at $10.32 represents one stock in the company. The offering of $360 million was increased by $40 million to meet demands from investors in Europe and America. Indiabull is working on two housing projects in Chennai and one in Mumbai and two office buildings in Mumbai. The receipt was priced at 4% discount to the Mumbai closing price on Tuesday of 435 rupees.

Advancing Stocks

Stocks of cement, banks and software export companies led the most active list. ACC, largest cement volume maker, jumped 7% or 83.40 rupees to 1,004. The cement companies have raised prices of 50 Kg cement bag between 3 rupees and 5 rupees. Cement companies have been defiant in ignoring government please for four months to avoid price hikes. UltraTech Cement jumped 4.72% to 926 rupees, Ambuja Cements advanced 4.2% to 130 rupees, and Grasim gained 1.45% to 2,742 rupees.

Larsen & Toubro added 32 rupees or 1.4% to 2,291 on the reports that company may sell stake in its recently formed subsidiary for port and shipbuilding businesses.

Declining Stocks

Bank stocks faced selling pressure after gaining for two weeks. State Bank of India dropped 19 rupees or 1.2% to 1,563. HDFC Bank lost 1.90 rupees to 1,148 and Corporation Bank, controlled by Life Insurance Corporation, fell 12.40 rupees to 323.65. However, ICICI Bank gained 2.4% on the news that the company has received government approval to sell 24% stake in its financial services subsidiary.

Jet Airways fell 7.55 rupees to 794 rupees on a ‘sell’ recommendation from Citigroup. The company recently acquired low cost carrier Sahara Airlines. Citigroup lowered earnings estimates by 41% for the merged airlines on higher than expected start up costs on recently launched European and American routes.

Advancing rupee in international trading, left software exporters lower for the third day this week. Tata Consultancy fell 0.9% to 1,117, Infosys declined 0.7% to 1,933, and Wipro lost 1.2% to 509 rupees.