Block deal boost for Sun Pharma

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Sun Pharma witnessed a huge block deal resulting in record volumes on the BSE. Nearly 1.1 per cent of the company's equity changed hands on BSE on Thursday with a bunch of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) buying the stocks.

The stock was up 2.23 per cent at Rs 484.25 with volumes accounting for over 2.3 crore shares on BSE. Sun Pharma has a strong presence in niche areas such as psychiatry, neurology, cardiology, diabetology, and gastroenterology.

For the quarter ended December 2004, the company's net profit grew 15 per cent to Rs 80.72 crore on a 23 per cent growth in sales to Rs 292.58 crore.

Block deals have become common on the bourses of late. In on Thursday trading, Bank of Punjab, Indiabulls and Shaw Wallace were among the counters registering huge block deals.

In recent weeks, block deals were executed in Bharti Tele-Ventures, Subex Systems and Rajesh Exports, primarily being executed between institutional investors including FIIs, and local funds.