Gross sales and business income for the quarter stood at Rs 364.76 crore as against Rs 281.63 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. Other income rose to Rs 8.50 crore from Rs 7 crore. Gross revenues rose 29 per cent to Rs 373.26 crore from Rs 288.53 crore.

Profit before interest, depreciation and tax stood at Rs 55.57 crore as against Rs 47.54 crore in the first quarter of 1998-99. The company's interest burden came down to Rs 8.27 crore from Rs 9.52 crore. Gross profit after interest but before depreciation and tax increased to Rs 47.30 crore from Rs 38.02 crore. Total expenditure in the first quarter this year was Rs 276.81 crore. Depreciation increased to Rs 8 crore from Rs 7 crore. Earning per share on an annualised basis has gone up to Rs 17.06 from Rs 12.93.The company sold 13,231tractors during the quarter as against 10,609 units in the first quarter of 1998-99. The company has increased its market share to 20 per cent from 17.20 per cent in the corresponding quarter of previous year. Escorts had sold 45,010 tractors during the year ended March 1999, which gave it a market share of 17.7 per cent.

INSIGHT -- firm will outperform growth rate

After Punjab Tractors, which is the fastest growing tractor company in the country, the next in line is Escorts. In the last financial year the company far outdid the average industry sales growth of less than 2 per cent (across all categories of tractors). The same feat has been repeated once again. While the industry growth in expected to remain at around last year's level Escorts will outperform that growth rate. The stock has also been reflecting this buoyancy.

--Aaron Chaze