Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren strengthens on backward integration plan

Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren rose 4.57% to Rs 487.55 at 11:21 IST on BSE on reports the company is planning to set up a 2 million tonnes per annum steel plant in Mundra, Gujarat, under its backward integration plan.

Meanwhile, BSE Sensex was up 181.63 points or 1.08% to 17,807.52, on positive cues from the global markets. Asian stocks rose today as Wall Street steadied overnight, helped by strong quarterly earnings and the prospect of lower interest rates.

On BSE, 5.18 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 4.94 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 491.90 and low of Rs 474 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 537.70 on 17 January 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 90 on 28 February 2007.

The mid-cap scrip had outperformed the market over the past one month till 20 February 2008, rising 7.27% compared to the Sensex's return of 5.31%. It also outperformed the market in the past one quarter, rising 25.92% compared to Sensex's decline of 4.91%.

The company's current equity is Rs 85.79 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

The current price of Rs 487.55 discounts its Q3 December 2007 annualized EPS of Rs 22.73, by a PE multiple of 21.44.

The steel plant at Mudra is second step towards backward integration - first being its 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) plate mill at Anjar, Gujarat which is expected to be commissioned in March 2008 reports added. Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren is also looking at some iron ore mines in Brazil.

Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren's net profit rose 136.4% to Rs 97.40 crore on 39.1% growth in net sales to Rs 1036.40 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.

Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren's business includes production and coating of high-grade submerged arc-welded pipes and electric resistance welded pipes