Praj Industries rose almost 5% today morning to Rs.100.65, with volumes going up to over 2.6 lakh shares.

The stock price is up in anticipation of a hike in ethanol price.

There is a Union cabinet meeting scheduled today where one of the things on the agenda is to discuss a proposal to hike the procurement price of ethanol produced from B-heavy molasses to Rs.59 /litre from the current price of Rs.47.13/litre.

The molasses produced from C-heavy molasses is also proposed to be hiked from Rs.43.46/litre to Rs.53/litre.

The objective of this price hike is to incentivize higher sugar production as more mills will start making ethanol.

In 2018-19 ethanol production season, starting Dec’18, it is estimated that 2 to 2.25 billion litres of ethanol would be supplied to the OMCs by sugar factories v/s requirement of 3.3 to 3.4 billion litres.