The Hindu Business Line : BEL: Poll prospects

THE announcement of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections may not sound very good for the stock market in the near term but for Bharat Electronics, elections are expected to act as booster. The company has bagged orders for supply of electronic voting machines (EVMs) to the Election Commission.

In previous elections also the company had supplied EVMs, but the revenue from this segment has grown over the years. This is attracting a lot of institutional investors into the stock as this business contributes around 10 per cent of the topline. Dealers said the company is also exploring the international market, including the US, for exporting EVMs.

Several market players are understood to have started taking position in the stock on expectation of more orders. On Monday, BEL gained 4.29 per cent at Rs 540.75 on the BSE with volumes of 32,348 shares; on the NSE, the stock closed at Rs 543.10, up 4.90 per cent with volumes of 74,159 shares.

Relief on LPG discount

Shares of select petroleum companies were bought on Monday. Among them wereBPCL, HPCL and IOC. The buying was not on disinvestments in these companies but on talk that a Saudi Arabian oil major is likely to offer discount of around 20 per cent to these companies on LPG. Dealers said this Saudi company is likely to offer similar discount to other oil companies in the region. But the logic for this discount was not known.

Dealers said with this discount, these companies would be able to reduce their subsidy burden.

On the back of this talk, shares of BPCL, HPCL and IOC were bought by institutional investors. BPCL stock gained 6.24 per cent at Rs 491.20 on the BSE, IOC closed at Rs 471.30, up 4.20 per cent, and HPCL at Rs 473.25, up 4.03 per cent.

Well spun

Saw pipes manufacturing companies have been buzzing recently on talk of order they are likely to get. But, Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren gained on Monday on talk that the company will shortly execute the Rs 1,200-crore order of GAIL (India). Dealers said this would add to the company's topline and bottomline from next fiscal.

On Monday, the stock price of the company gained 16.77 per cent at Rs 38.30 on the BSE with volumes of 13.10 lakh shares; On the NSE, the stock closed at Rs 38.60, up 17.50 per cent with volumes of 13.76 lakh shares.

Virendra Verma

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