Price hike does not halt Ramsarup Industries' slide

Ramsarup Industries declined 4.95% to Rs 163.10 at 14:41 IST on BSE even as the company said it has increased prices of steel wires in range of Rs 2500 per metric tonne to Rs 4000 per metric tonne with immediate effect.

The company made this announcement during trading hours today, 7 March 2008.

Meanwhile, BSE Sensex was down 686.60 points or 4.15% to 15,855.48, on weak global cues. Concerns on the political front also weighed on the market after the Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPM) on Thursday, 6 March 2008, renewed its threat on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government saying that the ruling coalition's future depended on how it took the call on pursuing the Indo-US nuclear deal.

On BSE, 18,218 shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 50,578 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 169.85 and a low of Rs 152.70 far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 300 on 4 January 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 127.15 on 7 March 2007.

The small-cap scrip had underperformed the market over the past one month till 5 March 2008, declining 15.72% compared to the Sensex's fall of 11.37%. It had also underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 29.66% compared to Sensex's decline of 16.44%.

The company's current equity is Rs 17.50 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 163.10 discounts Q3 December 2007 annualized EPS of Rs 36.53 by a PE multiple of 4.46.

In January 2008, Ramsarup Industries bagged an order worth Rs 44 crore from North East Frontier Railways for supply of steel wires.

In November 2007, Ramsarup Industries bagged orders aggregating Rs 35.64 crore.

Ramsarup Industries' net profit rose 15.2% to Rs 15.98 crore on 28.5% growth in net sales to Rs 388.04 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.

The company manufactures wires rods, steel wires and thermo mechanically treated (TMT) bars.