Belied second-quarter hopes hit IPCL

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Impressive results by Indian Petrochemicals Corporation (IPCL) failed to enthuse the markets, as the stock crashed over five per cent on aggressive selling on Monday.

According to market analysts, the counter was under selling pressure after its second-quarter results fell way short of market expectations. IPCL reported a 119 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 138 crore as against Rs 63 crore in the same quarter last year.

However, the market was expecting the company to post a net profit growth of around 250-300 per cent in the current quarter.

"The second-quarter profits are surprising as it were far below our expectations. We were expecting the net profit to jump by three times compared with last year's quarterly profits," said an analysts with a domestic broking firm tracking the oil and gas sector.

The counter witnessed an impressive volume of more than 39.30 lakh shares on the BSE on Monday. IPCL's net sales for the quarter ended September 2004 rose 35 per cent to Rs 1,819 crore from Rs 1,345 crore, while other income jumped 57 per cent to Rs 33 crore (Rs 21 crore).