Biocon share continues to soar, hits upper circuit

The Biocon Ltd share continued its dream run on the bourses for the second consecutive day on Thursday, hitting the upper circuit on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The stock closed at Rs 580.90 on the bourse, up 19.83 per cent, backed by huge volumes of 71.23 lakh shares. According to market sources, the counter has been witnessing aggressive buying from foreign institutional investors and high networth individual investors who did not get the shares in the public offer. Biocon's public issue had received an overwhelming response. It was subscribed 33 times.

Analyst Ganesh Shanbag of SMS Financial Services said "Retail investors who were allotted shares have booked profits in the last two days. Institutional investors are focussing on the counter. Also, two other companies with a similar business model "" the Hyderabad-based Matrix Laboratories and Divi's Laboratories "" are trading much higher than the current market price of Biocon.

Divi's shares have soared ever since the stock was listed on the BSE in March 2003. Compared with the public issue price of Rs 140, Divi's currently trades at Rs 1,510. Matrix is currently trading at Rs 1,449.65. Dealers said institutional investors are mopping up the stock in anticipation of further appreciation.