India Cements zooms 37% in 2 days after Gopikishan Damani buys 2.75% stake

Shares of India Cements surged 18.5 per cent to Rs 103.35 on Wednesday, thus rallying over 37 per cent in the past two trading days after Gopikishan Damani bought 2.75 per cent stake in the company for a total amount of Rs 70.5 crore via open market.

On Tuesday, Gopikishan S Damani had purchased 8.52 million shares in India Cements at an average price of Rs 82.70 apiece, NSE bulk deal data showed. The name of the sellers were not ascertained immediately.

According to the shareholding pattern, Gopikishan's brother Radhakishan Damani already held a 4.73 per cent stake in India Cements at the end of December 2019 quarter, up from 1.3 per cent stake in September quarter. 

Over the past one year, shares of India Cements have underperformed the market. The stock has gained just 2 per cent as against around 9 per cent advance in the benchmark Nifty50 index.

At 10:32 am, the stock was trading 18 per cent higher at Rs 103 apiece on the BSE. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading 289 points or 0.72 per cent lower at 39,992 levels.

For the third quarter of the current fiscal year (Q3FY20), India Cements reported a loss of Rs 5.37 crore on a standalone basis against a net profit of Rs 3.13 crore in the same period last year. Total income stood at Rs 1,194 crore against Rs 1,248 crore. The gross profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization or EBITDA) was Rs 132 crore compared to Rs 139 crore in the same period last year. The overall cost dropped to Rs 1,204 crore from Rs 1,317 crore one year ago, said the company's management. READ MORE

Meanwhile, Star Cement, Sanghi Industries, Orient Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement, Heidelbergcement India and Birla Corporation from the cement & cement products stocks were up in the range of 3 per cent to 10 per cent on the BSE.