Sugar shares on a sweet run

 Among the gainers in the sector were Sakthi Sugars, which is up 9.99 per cent from Rs 28.01 on August 25 to Rs 30.81 today on volumes of 98,599 shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

 The Simbhaoli Sugar stock was up 15.78 per cent to Rs 15.63 from Rs.13.50 with volumes of 51,018 shares. Balrampur Chini rose 4.22 per cent to close at Rs 185.35.

 The other sugar stock on the uptick are Dhampur Sugar which went up 19.87 per cent to Rs 27.15 with volumes of 2,424 shares, the Bajaj Hindustan stock was up 6.65 per cent to Rs 152.4 with volumes of 34489 shares.

 The Bannari Amman stock was up 8.41 per cent today to close at Rs 173.35 and Rana Sugar went up 8.68 per cent to Rs 8.76 with volumes of 53,019 shares.

 The Oudh Sugar stock closed at Rs 19.80, ten per cent higher over the closing price of Rs 18.00 on Monday and Rajshree Sugar closed 16.77 per cent higher at Rs 28.90 (Rs.24.75) with volumes of 4.53 lakh shares.

 The rise in domestic sugar prices is expected to lead to better quarterly performance by sugar companies.

 In the last three months, the wholesale price index for sugar has shot up 11 points from 107.80 to 118.80. Last year, sugar prices were depressed due to the overhang of heavy supplies in the market but this year is different.

 However, this year the sugar supply has been restricted to a certain level because of the implementation of new sugar release quota mechanism.

 Sugar prices have gained as much as 12 per cent in last couple of months due to change in the free sale sugar quota system implemented in June. This is despite the worries of humongous physical stocks of sugar exerting a depressing pressure.

 The prices of S-30 sugar have increased from Rs 1254.50 on July 1 to Rs 1343 at today