Hindustan Copper shining bright
Hindustan Copper is doing exceedingly well today morning, up 3% at Rs.100.30, with an intra day high at Rs.101.70. Just on 21st May, the stock had hit a new 52-week low at Rs.84. Market cap stands at Rs.1279 crore.
The PSU is up after it reported a 37% rise in net profit at Rs.188 crore and this was despite a 29% decline in net sales at Rs.415 crore. A tax write back of Rs.23 crore is what helped the company shore up its bottomline. The company has ended the year with a net profit at Rs.356 crore, up 10%.
A debt free company, it is not as cash flush as the other PSU, with cash at hand at Rs.438 crore as at 31st March 2013. Govt of India holds 94.01% stake and as per SEBI rules, it will have to bring down the stake. Its earlier attempt at stake sale in Nov’12 did not have much response from the public; the issue was bailed out by LIC which took 50% of the stake sale offered. At that time, the floor price as at a discount to the then market price at Rs.155 and today, it is much lower than the floor price too. The coming days could be interesting to see how the Govt pares its stake before end of August.