The Hindu Business Line : Archies back in limelight

ARCHIES Greeting & Gifts stock is in the limelight after a long time. Active interest in the stock is seen from the rise of more than 80 per cent in its price in the last one month.

On Monday, the stock gained 18.46 per cent at Rs 134.45 on the BSE with volumes of 4.96 lakh shares; on the NSE, it closed at Rs 134.20, up 16.8 per cent with volume of 14.30 lakh shares.

Dealers said the interest in the stock was on account of two factors. One, the investor perceives Archies as another retailing company with wide retail outlets across the country.

Retail companies are currently getting high valuations.

The other factor is the company's greater focus on gift articles than greeting cards.

The talk is that from the current fiscal there would be change in revenues, with majority coming from gifts with cards business contributing very little.

This has been done due to the slow growth for cards business due to Internet penetration (e-cards) and mobile phones.

Crisil up on S&P tag

WITH international rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) taking majority stake in domestic rating firm Crisil, the stock price of the latter is on an upward move.

The stock price of Crisil has gained 40 per cent in the last one month, just after the open offer closed.

S&P had made an open offer to the shareholders of Crisil at Rs 775 in order to increase its stake to 51 per cent. The offer closed on April 25.

Dealers said that the upward movement in the stock is due to the re-rating of the stock following the majority stake of S&P.

The stock is now being seen as an MNC and the market players are willing to give higher price-earning multiple. However, due to low liquidity in the stock, even a small purchase pushes the price.

On Monday, the stock gained 6.67 per cent to close at Rs 1,120 on the BSE with volume of 1,248 shares and on the NSE it closed at Rs 1,127.35, up 7.37 per cent with volume of 4,509 shares.

Mangalam Drugs: In accumulation mode

SHARES of the recently listed company Mangalam Drugs are being accumulated by a section of market players.

Dealers said that the purchases were being done on talks that a medium-sized pharma company might take a stake in it.

Company officials were not available for comment.

The exact stake and price of the deal were not known. In the last one week, the stock price of Mangalam Drugs has increased 15 per cent along with rise in trading volumes.

On Monday, it closed at Rs 38.35, up 1.19 per cent on the BSE with volume of 12.93 lakh shares; on the NSE, it closed at Rs 38.40, up 1.59 per cent with volume of 28.77 lakh shares.

Virendra Verma

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