India Cements strengthens

India Cements gained 2.32% to Rs 215.75 at 14:02 IST on BSE after the company said on Thursday, 28 February 2008 it has acquired a second bulk cargo carrier with capacity of 38,002 deadweight tonnage from Essar Shipping, Mumbai.

The company made this announcement during trading hours today, 28 February 2008.

Meanwhile, BSE Sensex was down 37.40 points or 0.21% to 17,788.59, as a sharp drop in US durable goods orders and US home sales fueled recession concerns in the world's biggest economy.

On BSE, 1.55 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 4.12 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 217.20 and a low of Rs 210.10 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 333 on 14 December 2007 and a 52-week low of Rs 145 on 8 March 2007.

The mid-cap scrip had outperformed the market over the past one month till 27 February 2008, gaining 1.66% compared to the Sensex’s decline of 1.47%. It had underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 27.28% compared to Sensex’s decline of 6.20%.

The company’s current equity is Rs 281.87 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 215.75 discounts its Q3 December 2007 annualized EPS of Rs 18.03, by a PE multiple of 11.97.

India Cements’ net profit rose 59.3% to Rs 127.05 crore on 56.2% growth in net sales to Rs 737.85 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.

The company is engaged in manufacturing and marketing cement.