Lion Fund hunts down Crew BOS

STREET SIGNS

A clutch of stocks hit lifetime highs during the day, including such biggies as Reliance Industries, ONGC, Hero Honda and NTPC. With that kind of euphoria in the markets, there was only one thing the Sensex could do. Hit another all-time high, crossing the 8,600 mark in the process.

Banking on merger
Jordan Flaming was back in action after a lull, buying a huge chunk of shares at the Bank of Punjab counter. The fund is said to have bought the shares at Rs 44 levels. Jordan Flaming is said to be highly appreciative of Monetary Monastery's approval for the merger of Bank of Punjab and Centurion Bank, effective from October 1, 2005.

The merger had been approved by the boards of directors and shareholders of both the banks at a swap ratio of 9:4. The combined bank is proposed to be called Centurion Bank of Punjab and will have a presence of 240 branches and extension counters, 386 ATMs apart from about 2.2 million customers. Whether Jordan Flaming's big buy bears fruit in the long run remains to be seen.

Lion stalks its preys
Desi, Lion Fund was among the active buyers at the bourses. The fund was seen buying shares of fashion accessories stock Crew BOS Products at Rs 184 levels. Crew BOS, who is the largest exporter of leather accessories in India has been attracting lot of foreign and domestic fund interest in the recent months.

The company's clientele include Gap, Next, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Espirit. The company reported FY05 revenues of Rs 81 crore, up 47 per cent from FY04, while net profit nearly doubled to Rs 8.20 crore. The company has plans to export high quality leather to China and other countries, which analysts expect will be the next growth driver for the company.

But what has really got Lion Fund interested seems to be the fact that management has guided for a topline of Rs 1,40 crore in FY06, up 73 per cent from current levels.

Lion Fund's other big buy during the day was Murudeshwar Ceramics. The fund bought 1.4 lakh shares at Rs 126 levels. Murudeshwar Ceramics is in the business of Ceramic tiles and posted a net profit of Rs 5.48 crore for the June quarter.

Analysts have noted that the company's business is bound to do well from the ongoing boom in the real estate business and the higher demand for housing witnessed of late. Higher demand has obviously translated into a similar uptake in consumption of vitrified tiles in flooring, which is Murudeshwar Ceramics speciality.

What is more, the company's products are also being consumed by group's associate companies, which are established players in the construction and hotel business. Not that the Lion fund is alone in its affections for the stock. Some time back, Bye Bye Group had also bought more than a lakh of shares at Rs 101 levels.

In other news...
The Phoenix Bank is continuing to buy the Vardhman Polytex stock. The fund had bought the shares at Rs 121 levels. Even though the stock has declined since then, the bank has decided to buy more, this time picking up the shares at Rs 114 levels.