MERC order may trip Tata Power

	Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, December 13, 2001

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MERC order may trip Tata Power

Virendra Verma/Aparna Krishnan

THE recent order passed by the MERC on standby charges is expected to have a negative impact on Tata Powers bottomline. According to analysts, Tata Power may have to take a hit of around Rs 65-Rs70 crore in the profits in fiscal 2001-02. Based on these d evelopments some of the analysts have lowered the EPS by Rs 3.5 to Rs 20.3. Following this, some of the broking firms find limited upside in the share price of the company. On Wednesday, the share ended marginally lower at Rs 131.65, down 1.53 per cent f rom Tuesdays close.

Brand selling to help Sun Pharma

Sun Pharmaceutical is planning to sell few of its prescription brands that it has identified as tail-end products. Dealers said these brands together account for sales of around Rs 25 crore. Most of the brands put on the block include those of Tamil Nadu Dhada and Natco Pharma, which the company had acquired earlier. Market sources said instead of phasing out the drugs, the company has decided to sell them off and garner as much cash as possible. The funds raised from the sale is expected to be used for expansion and setting up a new R&D facility at Baroda. Based on the various developments, the market has turned bullish on the counter. However, the action is still not visible on the stock price. On Wednesday, the stock was down by one per cent at Rs 5 80.45 on the BSE while on the NSE it closed flat at 584.15.

Funds switch from MTNL to VSNL

The funds are understood to be switching from MTNL to VSNL for short-term gains. There are various factors for this. One main factor, according to dealers, is the expected special dividend or bonus issue of debentures by VSNL before the disinvestment. In addition, the board meeting of VSNL on December 14 for interim dividend is also attracting funds managers to the counter. This was seen from the rise in the trading volume in both the counters. While VSNL was up by 4.13 per cent at Rs 239.15, MTNL close d lower by 1.3 per cent at Rs 140.35.