The Recon scrip, which was trading in the region of Rs 17 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on February 26, moved up to Rs 52 in late March.

The stock closed at Rs 33 on April 7, but fell to around Rs 30 on Thursday. The spurt in share prices has been accompanied by a significant increase in trading volumes too. The average daily volume traded on the BSE rose from roughly 500-1,000 shares to almost 14,000 shares on March 30.

In a faxed response to The Financial Express, Recon managing director S Jayaprakash Mady said: "In today's global pharmaceutical market, strategic alliances are one of the methods for achieving this growth and Recon is no exception. However, as on date, we are not talking to any specific party for a strategicalliance nor has any such party visited our facilities".

Recon, he added, is a professionally managed company and has ambitious plans to market quality pharmaceutical products in both the domestic and international markets.

Analysts also attribute the interest in the Recon counter to possible progress on the company's efforts to secure a US Food and Drug Administration approval for its facility for certain specific drugs covered by an agreement with the National Biochemical Corporation, Cleveland, and Ohio, USA.

Recon's research and development (R&D) unit had developed processes for these drugs and drug master files (DMF) were expected to be filed subsequently. No official word on the progress of this project could, however, be got.

The company had also embarked on a collaborative project with the National Chemicals Laboratory (NCL), Pune, to develop a new anti-HIV drug. The project is jointly funded by Recon and the Department of Science & Technology.

The 13-year-old Recon, which began as apartnership firm in 1986, had also, during 1997-98, received offers from multinationals to undertake contract manufacturing at its injectibles facility at Nelamangala in Karnataka. The company's total income and net profits for the year ended March 31, 1998, stood at Rs 52.05 crore and Rs 1.17 crore, respectively. The company did not recommend any dividend for 1997-98.