AB Amre dumps India Cements

STREET SIGNS

Loose cement
Last week we had reported how interest is building up at the India Cements counter. Apparently we spoke too soon. Mr AB Amre had bought the stock last week at Rs 111 levels, despite the recent downturn at the counter.

While the bright outlook on the cement sector was thought to be the main reason behind the buying, the stock has declined even further since then. With the stock price now at Rs 100 levels, AB Amre has got a wake-up call, which was behind its decision to dump the stock.

However, the Big Bank's mutual fund arm who had bought the shares at Rs 99 levels two weeks back continues to hold on, hoping for good times ahead.

India Cements had recently announced that it has acquired over 50 per cent stake in Andhra Pradesh based unlisted cement company - Visaka Cement Industry, resulting in buying interest at the counter.

All is well at Welspun
Continuing with Big Bank' fund arm, they were buyers at the Welspun India counter. The fund is said to have bought five lakh shares at Rs 135 levels. Welspun India has lined up big ticket investments, hoping to benefit from the abolition of the Multi-Fibre Agreement.

The company is planning to invest Rs 650 crore to expand capacity and boost exports. What is more, the company has plans to enter the hypermarkets space under the brand name, Welspun Home Club, focussing on home furnishings.

For the Big Bank fund's fund manager who is known to have keen eye on mid-cap stocks, this seemingly was an irresistible opportunity. The stock has been slowly moving upwards too and has seen a 16 per cent appreciation in the past two months.

MphasiS on results
Good results by MphasiS BFL had many suitors angling for the stock. One was Lending Brokerage which bought more than eight lakh shares of MphasiS at Rs 255 levels.

The company reported a 28 per cent increase in the net profit to Rs 40.16 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, up from Rs 31.51 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Revenues were up 18 per cent to Rs 227.45 crore. Apparently, Lending Brokerage is impressed by the fact that MphasiS has managed to cross the $100 million mark in revenues in the first six months of FY06.

The increase in revenues has mainly been on account of enhancement of business from existing clients as well as from service offerings to new clients.

In other news...
Another company, which was in focus after god quarterly numbers was Indiabulls.

One foreign fund who is on the look out for small-cap stocks across the globe was a buyer at the counter after the company announced an eye-popping 578 per cent rise in September -quarter net profit.

HS Busy was not resting easy either. The fund which has been looking for good opportunities finally zeroed in on Lakshmi Machine Works, buying the stock at Rs 14197 levels.