Stocks in the news: Jagran, Parsvnath

: The stock hit an all-time high of Rs 395 last week, with the management increasing its advertising rates by 26 per cent for all editions along with a 37 per cent increase in rates for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The company decided to hike rates a month earlier instead of the usual practice of increasing them on April 9 every year. The company publishes daily newspaper, Dainik Jagran and the newly launched I-next.

The stock reacted positively, spurting 13 per cent on higher volumes. The volume of shares on the BSE and the NSE increased ten-fold from 1.37 lakh shares to 12.67 lakh shares. The company has done well during the nine months ended December 2006, with a three-fold increase in net profit. The net profit rose 206 per cent to Rs 58.14 crore in April-December, 2006 from Rs 19.01 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Dainik Jagran, at present, has thirty-one editions, with nearly 250 sub-editions covering half of the country's population and the entire Hindi-speaking belt. The company will soon be launching 'I-next', currently published from Kanpur and Lucknow, in other cities.

Parsvnath:The stock gained 14 per cent to close at Rs 271.25 on Friday despite weak markets. In the F&O, the operators held on to their positions of 5.15 million shares on account of a series of positive developments. The company last week announced the launch of its five-star hotel and multiplex-cum-commercial mall project in Vejalpur, Ahmedabad.

This marks the opening of bookings for commercial space in the coveted upcoming property. The plot is situated in the heart of the city on a 100-foot-wide road. It will have a five-star hotel, a commercial mall and a multiplex. The entire complex, for which the construction has commenced, is expected to be completed and operational within two-and-a- half years. A number of well-known retailers have already booked space in the mall. The company has also tied up with Movietime Cineplex, which already has multiplexes in various parts of the world, to manage the multiplexes. A number of international and reputed domestic hotel chains are in talk with Parsvnath for running the five-star hotel.