Tata Sponge hits a new high

Tata Sponge had closed yesterday at Rs.478.35 and there were not really too many expectations from this company in terms of Q4 performance. But its numbers, which came in today morning, truly bowled over the market, with the stock price reacting, opening higher at Rs.505, going on to hit an intra day high at Rs.539.90, a new 52-week high.

This company is an associate company of Tata Steel which holds 51% stake and for Q4FY14, riding on the back of robust growth in net sales, tight leash on costs, substantial rise in other operating income and almost halving of interest outgo helped the company end Q4 with a consolidated net profit at Rs.40 crore, up almost 4.5 times YoY and sequentially, it was up 67%. And it ended FY14 with a net profit at Rs.101 crore, up 19%. Interestingly, though its net sales for Q4 rose 10% at Rs.228 crore, for FY14, net sales was actually down 2%. It was only due to the over 5% decline in operating costs which helped shore up the bottomline.