German Bank falls for Shree Renuka

STREET SIGNS

Just when the bulls seem to have wrested control, the bears hit back. After guiding the Sensex above the 9,000 peak, bulls took a breather on Tuesday.

The result was that the markets snapped a five-session winning streak. The Sensex had gained nearly 460 points during this period to close just below the 9000 levels yesterday.

All that shines

Merry Lunch was a seller at the Vaibhav Gems counter. The fund sold the shares at Rs 296 levels. The buzz is that Merry's actions have been promoted by profit motives as the stock has seen a near 450 per cent appreciation in the past year. Another story doing the rounds is that War Bug Fund is planning to invest in a major way in the counter.

Sometime back Vaibhav Gems had announced plans to acquire a global jewellery manufacturing/marketing company belonging to the STS group of companies situated in different areas of the globe for a sum not exceeding Rs 400 crore.

The company, a leading exporter of jewellery to the US and Europe, is increasingly concentrating on the studded jewellery segment.

Soft focus

There was a lot of buying interest at the VisualSoft Technologies counter. The prominent buyers included Jeweller Fund and Tumble Ton Fund. While the former bought 2.6 lakh shares at Rs 228 levels, the latter bought 1.5 lakh shares at Rs 224 levels.

The buzz at the counter seems to be, because of the positive sentiments following the merger announcement of VisualSoft Technologies with AppLabs Technologies and eSolutions. The merger is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal.

According to those in the know, combined entity is likely to notch up revenues of more than Rs 300 crore. The company expects its turnover to touch the $100-million mark in FY07.

Sweet 'n sugary

Another big fund activity took place at the Shree Renuka Sugars counter. The German Bank was a buyer at the counter, pocketing 1.3 lakh shares at Rs 336 levels. Since its listing at the end of October, the stock has appreciated by nearly 18 per cent.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 40.73 crore for the year-ended September 2005, an increase of 232 per cent over Rs 12.27 crore in the previous year. Total income for the year stood at Rs 641.54 crore, an increase of 182 per cent over Rs 227.46 crore in the previous year. Shree Renuka Sugars is a full"�integrated player in the sugar industry which processes sugarcane into three co-products, which include sugar, ethanol and power.

The company has the largest sugar refinery in India with 1000 tonne per day raw sugar processing capacity. Those in the know, note that this enables it to get better economies of scale, as it can refine high volumes of raw sugar, bringing down the fixed cost per tonne of sugar refined.

In other news

Big Bank's desi fund was a buyer at the Crew BOS counter, where it bought close to one lakh shares at Rs 178 levels.