Andhra Paper rallies 17% after Bright Star Investments buys 1.25% stake

Shares of paper companies rallied up to 17 per cent in the intra-day trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday in an otherwise weak market after Radhakishan Damani-owned Bright Star Investments acquired a more than 1 per cent stake in Andhra Paper via open market on Friday.

Andhra Paper rallied 17 per cent to Rs 247.45 during the session on the back of heavy volumes. The trading volumes on the counter jumped an over 10-fold with a combined 4.4 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE till 12:06 pm.

“On June 26, 2020, Bright Star Investments purchased 500,000 equity shares, representing 1.26 per cent of total equity of Andhra Paper, at a price of Rs 206.23 per share on the NSE via bulk deal,” the exchange data shows.

Nimi Enterprises had sold 246,534 shares at an average price of Rs 210.69 per share, data shows. The name of the other sellers were not ascertained immediately.

The stock of the West Coast Paper Mills, one of the promoters of Andhra Paper, soared 12 per cent to Rs 201.80 in the intra-day trade on the NSE today.

Last week, International Paper has offloaded 10 per cent of its stake in Andhra Paper through an offer for sale (OFS) route. The Luxembourg-based company had a 20 per cent stake in Andhra Paper at the end of March 2020 quarter, the shareholding pattern data shows.

Among other paper stocks, Ballarpur Industries, Seshasayee Paper & Boards, JK Paper and Emami Paper Mills were trading higher in the range of 2 per cent to 5 per cent on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 1 per cent or 373 points at 34,798 levels.