Sail gains after reporting good sales in August

Steel Authority of India rose 1.8% to Rs 48.20 at 9:26 IST on BSE after the company said its steel sales rose 16% to 10.86 lakh tonnes in August 2013 over August 2012.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 23.02 points or 0.12% at 18,863.11.

On BSE, 56,000 shares were traded in the counter compared with average volume of 8.64 lakh shares in the past two weeks.

The stock hit a high of Rs 48.25 and a low of Rs 47.55 so far during the day.

Steel Authority of India (Sail) said in a statement that the rise in sales was mainly on account of increase in flat product sales, which went up by 26% during the period under review. While long products saw a growth of 3%, retail sales at 53,800 tonnes in August were up by 62% on a month-to-month basis. Concerted efforts to harness the rising dollar materialised in a significant growth in exports to a level of 31,000 tonnes, a corresponding period last year (CPLY) growth of 36%, the company said in a statement.

Sail's net profit fell 35.3% to Rs 450.91 crore on 5% decline in net sales to Rs 10106.12 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012.

Sail is among the five Maharatnas of the country's Central Public Sector Enterprises. Sail has five integrated steel plants, three special plants, and one subsidiary in different parts of the country. The Government of India (GoI) holds 80% stake in Sail (as per the shareholding pattern as on 30 June 2013).

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