Paper stocks hit 52-week high on strong Q1 earnings

Seshasayee Paper, West Coast Paper, Star Paper, Ruchira Papers and N R Agarwal Ind were trading at 52-week highs.

Shares of select paper and paper product companies touched their respective 52-week highs in an otherwise subdued market after reporting a strong set of numbers for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17).

Seshasayee Paper and Boards, West Coast Paper, Star Paper Mills, Ruchira Papers, N R Agarwal Industries, Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers, Kuantum Papers and Kushal Tradelink were trading at 52-week highs on the BSE.

Fifty one paper companies which have reported their Q1FY17 results so far have posted an over six-fold jump in their aggregate net profit. A combined net profit of these companies rose to Rs 220 crore from Rs 36 crore in the same quarter year ago.

Seshasayee Paper and Boards hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 463 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Tuesday. In past one-month, post Q1 results, the stock rallied 46% after the company posted an over four-fold jump in net profit at Rs 24.12 crore in Q1FY17, on back of strong operational performance. The company had profit of Rs 5.39 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) margins nearly doubled to 17.59% in Q1FY17 from 9.9% in Q1FY16.

	Price on BSE in Rs			Net profit/loss (Rs cr)
Company	30/06/2016	LTP	% chg	Jun'15	Jun'16
N R Agarwal Inds	57.10	122.50	114.54	-1.24	12.10
Star Paper Mills	45.40	93.50	105.95	3.90	12.76
Kuantum Papers	152.10	292.35	92.21	3.45	14.34
Shree Ajit Pulp	120.70	185.00	53.27	2.96	4.27
Seshasayee Paper	294.35	449.25	52.62	5.39	24.12
Emami Paper	55.70	71.90	29.08	3.60	7.98
T N Newsprint	275.10	325.40	18.28	52.25	69.51
Sensex	26999.72	27961.83	3.56	-	-
LTP: Last traded price at 11:10 am
Source: CapitalinePlus