India Cements rebounds 14% from day's low on heavy volume; hits 20-mth high

Shares of India Cements surged 8 per cent to Rs 123.50, bouncing back 14 per cent from day’s low on the back of heavy volumes, on the BSE on Monday. The stock of the cement and related products company declined 5 per cent to Rs 108 in the intra-day trade but recovered and hit a 20-month high in the intra-day trade -- its highest level since September 4, 2018.

The trading volumes on the counter jumped more than five-fold, with a combined 17.79 million equity shares (representing 5.7 per cent to total equity) changing hands on the NSE and BSE till 02:27 pm. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 2.6 per cent at 30,295 points.

With today’s rally, the stock of India Cements has zoomed nearly 23 per cent in the past two trading days. The company, on Friday, announced that Radhakishan S Damani, promoter of D-Mart, along with Gopikishan S Damani, has increased the stake in the company to 19.89 per cent at the end of March quarter. Damani’s stake in the company stood at 4.73 per cent as of December 31, 2019, according to the stock exchange data.

Gopikishan Damani and Radhakishan Damani collectively acquired an additional 47 million equity shares, or 15.16 percentage point stake, in India Cements during the January-March quarter of FY20. At the end of FY20, Radhakishan Damani held 10.29 per cent stake and Gopikishan Damani held 8.26 per cent holding; while Radhakishan Damani & Gopikishan Damani jointly held 1.34 per cent stake, the shareholding pattern data shows.

India Cements is one of the largest producers of cement in South India with established presence in all the five states in the region with an installed capacity of 15.55 MTPA (million tons per annum) as on December 31, 2019 including the presence of its production unit in Rajasthan.

India Cements continues to remain one of the major players in the Southern market driven by strong brand image and presence across all the southern states. Overall southern markets accounted for 67 per cent of the total sales volume of the company in FY19 as against 62 per cent in FY18. The company sells its products under established brands namely ‘Sankar’, ‘Coromandel’ and ‘Raasi’ in the southern markets.