Tumble Ton bats for Amara Raja

STREET SIGNS

While the smart crowd has been pointing out how the mid-cap stocks are over-cooked with stretched valuations, desi funds are still merrily buying into them.

For example, Tumble Ton was a buyer at Amara Raja Batteries counter, picking up the shares at Rs 152 levels. While it is not clear what is immediate justification for Tumble Ton's actions, some have noted that company's confidant projections of a 22-25 per cent market share in automotive and industrial battery segment by the end of FY06 makes it a stock worth watching out for.

Currently, Amara Raja's market share in the segment is 16 per cent. Compared with many others in the mid-cap segment, the stock has also not really put the bourses on fire though, of late, there has been a noticeable increase. The stock has risen by more than 40 per cent in the past five months.

Amara Raja clocked a sales turnover of Rs 220 crore last fiscal. I See I See's online firm is also among those who are singing praises of the company. The firm notes that Amara Raja is expected to post a topline growth of 15 per cent in the current fiscal aided by higher exports and capturing market from the unorganised sector, which constitutes about 50 per cent of the batteries market in India.

However, not all were impressed by the company's future, with Kodak Fund selling the stock at 152 levels.

The 'get out' stock

The stock of Scandent Solutions Corporation has been on a free fall of late. From Rs 331 levels, the stock has come down to Rs 204 levels, that is a drop of 62 per cent. Foreign funds which have been holding the stock had started selling much earlier, but now it seems they are offloading even more.

Clive Lloyd Fund and HS Busy were among the sellers at the counter recently. While the former sold the shares at Rs 204 levels, HS Busy sold the shares at Rs 212.

In fact, Clive Lloyd Fund was among the funds to first press the sell button at the counter and had done so at Rs 299 levels. Meanwhile, Jordan Flaming sold the shares at Rs 241 levels. Following Scandent's announcement of a reverse merger with back-offices entity Cambridge Services Holdings LLC (another arm of the Singapore-headquartered Scandent Group), the stock price had zoomed to Rs 360 levels in early September.

A false dawn

Phoenix Fund has decided to offload shares of Shree Vindhya Paper Mills. The fund is said to have sold the shares at Rs 8 levels. The stock which was in single digit till the end of August had suddenly seen a spurt and had risen to Rs 14.50 by the second week of September.

Market buzz has it that a section of punters have been taking a bet on the loss-making company's recovery. However, suddenly most of them seem to have decided to book profits which has again dragged the stock back to single digit.