Saurashtra Cement soars 20% second straight day on strong Q1 earnings

The company has reported profit of Rs 16 crore in June 2014 quarter against Rs 3 crore in the same quarter year ago.

Saurashtra Cement was locked in upper circuit for second day in a row, up 20% at Rs 53.40, after reporting nearly six-fold jump in net profit at Rs 15.69 crore for the first quarter (April-June) of current fiscal, on the back of strong realizations. The company had registered a profit of Rs 2.72 crore in the same quarter last year.

The Gujarat-based company had reported profit of Rs 20.65 crore during the entire previous financial year ended March 31, 2014.

Net sales of the company during the quarter under review grew 60% to Rs 163 crore from Rs 102 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year. Export sales nearly double to Rs 27 crore from Rs 14 crore.

EBIDTA or operating margin improved substantially to 23% from 12% during the recently concluded quarter.

The stock has zoomed 44% in past two trading sessions from Rs 37.10 on August 4, have seen huge trading volumes. Till 1220 hours, around 333,000 shares already changed hands as against an average sub 60,000 shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on BSE. There are pending buy orders for 73,000 shares, data shows.