New Delhi, June 5: Notwithstanding the 380-point erosion in the Sensex after the budget, nearly 132 scrips in the A and B1 groups have survived the bear onslaught. These scrips have recorded gains as high as 65 per cent over the past six trading sessions. The budget sops in the form of import duty hike and tax incentives seem to have propped up most of these scrips. Some of the major gainers are paper, housing and cement scrips. Of the 132 gainers, 52 have increased by 10-65 per cent.The budget sops have infused a fresh lease of life into the sagging paper industry which has been facing problems of poor offtake, low prices and dumping by global majors. The budget has raised import duty on paper and paper boards from 20 per cent to 30 per cent along with an 8 per cent special additional import duty and the 10-12 per cent rupee depreciation.Ballarpur Industries (14.35 per cent), West Coast Paper Mills (14.18 per cent), Ram Paper Mills (17.64 per cent), ITC Bhadrachalam (13.38 per cent), Seshasayee Paper(18.4 per cent) and Global Boards (20.89 per cent) have gained in the range of 13-20 per cent over the past six trading sessions.The budget has also focussed on promoting the housing sector as part of its move to boost infrastructure. The proposal to repeal the Urban Land Ceiling (Regulation) Act which may reduce the demand-supply gap in urban land available for construction purposes, concessions like tax-holiday for housing projects and enhanced levels of deductions from profits in housing projects may give a push to the bottomlines of several housing companies.One of the top gainers in the list is Lok Housing which has shot up from Rs 7.25 on May 29 to Rs 11.6 on June 5, up 60 per cent. GIC Housing and LIC Housing are among the other major gainers. GIC Housing has risen 15 per cent from Rs 22.5 on May 29 to Rs 25.95 on June 5 and LIC Housing 10.86 per cent from Rs 44.65 to Rs 49.5.
Cement stocks like Shree Digvijay Cement (8.6 per cent) and Panyam Cement (3.2 per cent) have also recorded gains in the pastsix trading sessions.The waiver of special import duty of 8 per cent on trading companies has propped up Lakhsmi Overseas on the bourses. Lakshmi Overseas is the top gainer (65 per cent) in the list of gainers which moved up from Rs 10.9 to Rs 18.
Some of the other gainers include VSNL, BASF India, BPL, Greaves, SAIL, HPCL, Hindalco, Sandoz, Bhel, Bharti Telecom, Hotel Leela, Eicher Ltd and Reliance Petroleum.
The protection extended to the steel sector saw Tisco and SAIL move up initially during the week. In fact, Tisco sustained its rise for nearly four days. However, Tisco could not withstand Friday's onslaught. The budget announced protection in the form of special import duty of 8 per cent and customs duty hike of five per cent on cold rolled coils. Read with the rupee devaluation, it translates into a stiff dose of protection for the steel makers.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
