The share price of public sector fertiliser major Rashtriya Chemical & Fertilisers (RCF) today zoomed on hopes of privatisation of the company in the near term.
The stock ended the day up 8.20 per cent at Rs 36.95 after hitting an intra-day high of Rs 37.30. The stock witnessed a heavy volume of 29.67 lakh shares. The company has been among the star performers of late, soaring 576 per cent from Rs 5.50 on February 5, 2002, to the current level of Rs 37.20.
As compared with a daily volumes of 1,000-10,000 shares, volumes have now soared to 84.8 lakh shares (as on May 31, 2002).
Analysts say the spurt in RCF, as has been the trend with most public sector shares over the past few months, is also due to the low floating stock, resulting in lack of supply pressure even at higher levels. The government today allowed the use of ECBs to fund the acquisition of state-run firms by Indian companies.
This also added to the optimistic sentiment on the stock, dealers said. RCF is the largest gas-based fertilisers and chemicals manufacturer in the country, with an installed capacity of 1.16 million tonne. It has manufacturing units at Thal (Raigad district in Maharashtra) and Trombay near Mumbai.
RCF posted a 26.5 per cent fall in its net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2002 to Rs 27.72 crore compared with Rs 37.74 crore for the corresponding period last fiscal.
Total income decreased to Rs 586.06 crore (Rs 590.64 crore), while net profit fell by 62.7 per cent to Rs 24.21 crore (Rs 64.97 crore).
