Institutional buying lifts Hero Honda

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Two-wheeler major Hero Honda was in the limelight on Wednesday on the back of strong institutional buying.

According to market sources, a leading foreign institutional investor is buying at the counter for the past two days. Sources said nearly seven lakh shares were picked up by the fund in Tuesday's trading through a domestic broking house.

Hero Honda, in Wednesday's trading, was up 2.01 per cent to close at Rs 442.40. The counter witnessed an impressive volume of more than 2.2 lakh shares on the BSE and over 8.1 lakh shares on the National Stock Exchange.

The market grapevine is that the company may announce a special divided of 200 per cent for the current fiscal. Hero Honda reported a 24 per cent growth in the September ended quarter net profit to Rs 194.36 crore on a 39.3 per cent growth in net sales to Rs 1,757.16 crore.

However, analysts said, increased competition in the two-wheeler space with the entry of Honda and Zisuki into the Indian markets is expected to put pressure on the bottomline of Indian companies.