Alok Industries freezes at 5% lower circuit after huge block deals

As of March 2020, the promoters held 6.15 per cent stake in Alok Industries

Shares of Alok Industries were locked in the lower circuit of 5 per cent at Rs 12.58, falling 9.5 per cent from its early morning high on the BSE on Wednesday, after a nearly 2 per cent of the total equity of the company changed hands on bourses till 11:00 am. Reliance Industries (RIL) held nearly 71 per cent stake (on diluted share capital) in the textile company.

The stock hit an intra-day high of Rs 13.90 today and has seen a strong run-up in the price, in the past one-and-half months. It has zoomed 255 per cent or 3.5 times from the level of Rs 3.92 on March 31, 2020. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex has gained 3.1 per cent during the same period.

A combined 44.65 million equity shares, representing 2.01 per cent of the textile company, changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far. There were sell orders for a combined 14.83 million shares on both the exchanges, the exchanges data shows.

At 09:53 am, around 13.73 million shares (0.62 per cent) changed hands via block deal on the BSE, the data shows. The name of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately.

Alok Industries posted a net loss of Rs 481 crore in the first nine months (April-December) of the financial year 2019-20, compared to a loss of Rs 3,929 crore in the same period last year. The revenue from operations of the company during the period stood at Rs 2,581 crore, compared to Rs 2,542 crore in the same quarter last year. The firm is an integrated textile manufacturer, headquartered in Mumbai with interests in the polyester and cotton segments.