Agrochemicals shares rally; PI Industries, Insecticides hit record high

PI Industries,Insecticides, Sharda Cropchem, Atul and Punjab Chemicals gained between 3%-15% in intra-day trade on BSE.

Shares of agrochemical companies have rallied by up to 15% during intra-day trade on the bourses on back of heavy volumes.

PI Industries (up 15% at Rs 750), Insecticides (12% at Rs 940) and Sharda Cropchem (up 10% at Rs 354) have touched their respective all-time high price on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Atul was up 4% at Rs 1,158, while Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection rose 3% at Rs 209 and Bayer CropScience was up 1% at Rs 3,300 on the BSE. The S&P BSE Sensex was trading flat at 28,756 points at 1444 hours.

Insecticides (India) have rallied 12% to Rs 940, extending its 15% surge in past two trading sessions on the BSE, after the company fixes April 17, 2015 as the record date for the purpose of issue of bonus shares.

The board recommended the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:2 i.e. 1 bonus equity share for every 2  equity shares held by member as on date of book closure.

The trading volumes on the counter jumped more than three-fold with a combined 416,173 shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE till 1455 hours.

Meanwhile, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have increased their stake in Sharda Cropchem and Atul during the recently concluded quarter.

In Sharda Cropchem, the overseas investors holding increased to 5.70% in March 2015 quarter from 3.87% at the end of December 2014 quarter. They raised their stake in Atul to 6.70% from 5.74% in previous quarter.