Combined with the price rise, the increase in volumes is phenomenal. Given the low equity base of all these companies, the spurt in volumes has an added significance. A number of these companies have reported a loss during the last fiscal and almost all of them have a low earnings per share (EPS) and book value figure. However, the silver lining for these companies is the fact that the second half always turns out to be better than the first half for the software industry. InnovationSoftware is among the top gainers. It scaled a new high of Rs 18.30 on Wednesday. The scrip has notched a 388 per cent gain, rising from Rs 3.75. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 5 lakh on a turnover of Rs 32 lakh during the half year ended September 1997. The scrip was trading below par for more than two years. Traded volumes have gone up from 100-200 shares to 22,000 shares.

For the year ended June 1997, Advent Computers had reported a loss of Rs 86 lakh on a turnover of only Rs 1.90 crore. The scrip has, however, in the last three sessions gained 130 per cent to close at Rs 4.60. However, for the Chennai-based Maars Software it is a different story. During the year ended December 1997, Maars saw its net profit almost double over its previous 15-month period. During the period it earned a Rs 3.69 crore net profit on a turnover of Rs 16.49 crore. Between April 24 and May 25, Maars Software has gained 124 per cent to close at Rs 327 from Rs 146. Sparsely traded during 1995 and 1996, and tradedonly once in 1997, the average daily volumes have gone up from 1,000-2,000 shares to 3.14 lakh shares on May 25. On a Rs 5-crore equity, its EPS works out to Rs 7.23 and book value to Rs 15.85.

With a 306 per cent rise in scrip price to Rs 10.15 from its May 18 low of Rs 2.50, Datapro Information Technology Ltd is one of the top gainers among the low-profile, low-cap B2 stocks. Trading below par since mid-1996, the scrip recently saw a high of Rs 10.55. However, for the half year ended September 1997, the company had reported a loss of Rs 61 lakh on a turnover of Rs 2.90 crore. For fiscal 1997, Datapro's EPS stands at a negative figure of Rs 1.94 and book value at Rs 8.28. The scrip, however, lost 20 per cent on Wednesday to close at Rs 8.

Between May 15 and 25, Computech International gained 109 per cent to close at Rs 18 from Rs 9.30. Since listing in 1995, the scrip has been trading below par with daily volumes in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 shares. With the current price rise, volumes in the stockhave also gone up to as high as 70,000 shares.