With the IT tribunal judgment going in favour of Tata Chemicals, the chemicals major is likely to benefit immensely. As a result of this favourable judgement the company's total claim which earlier was pegged at Rs 350 crore will come down to just Rs 150 crore. The judgement has improved the sentiment at the counter. The scrip has been hitting the upper band of the filter on BSE for the last two days. On Tuesday the scrip openned at Rs 65.9, marginally lower than the previous day's closing and soon fell to the day's low of Rs 65.10. But as soon as the news of the judgement reached the market, the scrip went through the roof and it exhausted the daily 8 per cent limit to close at Rs 71.25. On Wednesday, the scrip opened at the freeze level of Rs 76.95. Marketmen expect the stock to touch Rs 100 in next few trading sessions. In last two days nearly 6 lakh shares have changed hands at the counter.

The company has reported a net profit of Rs 129.71 crore on aturnover of Rs 1078 crore for the nine month period ended December 1998.

High volumes at Sterlite counter

Punters are likely to come back to the Sterlite Industries counter. The company is likely to buy 100 year old Mount Lyell copper mine in Tasmania Hobart (Australia). This will require an investment of around $6.3 million.The recent move will insulate Sterlite Industries from the vagaries of international price movement. The company already has a 1 million tonne copper smelter located at Tamilnadu. Sterlite will resume underground development, re-establish a deep drilling programme and share in the cost of raising a tailings dam, an environmental necessity.

The Mount Lyell mine, with 200 workers employed, was under voluntary administration since last December, following a steep fall in copper prices world wide over two years to about 65 cents from two pounds. The mine acquisition by the company will lead to cost savings for the copper concentrate and greater certainty of supply.

Not onlythis, the company is hopeful that its smelter plant will finish the current fiscal at 40 per cent capacity utilisation despite plant closure for 33 days. The Rs 950 crore plant has been permitted by the state pollution control authorities only to tap 40 per cent capacity. Sterlite's application to tap the full capacity is pending before the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. The scrip is currently languishing at Rs 164.20 but the volumes have gone up at the counter. On Wednesday 8.55 lakh shares were traded as against the daily average of 4-5 lakh shares. Stake hike news driving HCL InfoThe hike in stake by the promoters in HCL Infosystems is likely to improve the sentiment at the counter. Two investment arms of HCL Infosystems namely, Slocum Investment Private Limited and Shiv Nadar Investment Private Limited have hiked the stake further by 3 per cent. The scrip is currently trading at Rs 628. It has marginally fallen from Rs 680 on account of profit booking. However, market analyst expect the scrip willtouch Rs 750 mark soon as the fourth quarter results are expected to be excellent.