Market Movers: Ambuja, ACC continue to decline; bad show at Cosmo Films

NEW DELHI: Share prices of Ambuja Cement and ACC, two units that its majority owner Holcim plans to sell, continued to decline despite the race for both firms widening with the entry of another player.

Media reports claimed that ArcelorMittal, one of the largest steelmakers in the world, is looking to join the race to acquire the companies. This makes the number of perspective bidders to at least four, including Adani Group, JSW Group and UltraTech Cement.

Amid the news, Ambuja Cement extended its losses in the last 15 days to another 3 per cent on Tuesday. ACC also dropped another 2 per cent. Selling in both counters is happening as investors believe they may be shortchanged amid Holcim’s desperation to sell its stake and the new acquirers may buy the stake at a lower valuation.

Production up, stocks down
Usually, when a company reports that it has increased production in the preceding month, stocks price go up as investors see it as a continuation of demand growth and thus the prospect of revenue growth.

But sometimes, things don’t go as usual. That's what happened on Tuesday when JSW said it increased crude steel production in April by 22 per cent year-on-year. The stock tanked 5 per cent to 645.40.

The company said its crude steel production stood at 16.67 lakh tonnes. Flat-rolled steel production grew 25 per cent while long rolled steel production increased 5 per cent YoY during April.

The company also said it started receiving power from renewable sources for Vijaynagar works under a long term agreement with JSW Energy.

Bad show at Cosmo Films
Cosmo Films reported an increase of 45.30 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 108.18 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022, helped by higher sales and better-operating margins. Revenue from operations was Rs 820.88 crore against Rs 671.80 crore in the year-ago period.

The multibagger firm, which has delivered 9-fold returns in the last three years, also announced a bonus issue of one share for every two held by shareholders. It also changed its name to Cosmo First to better reflect its expanding business into the chemical space.

However, none of these could entice investors to stick with their investment in the company on Tuesday. The counter plunged nearly 7 per cent to end at Rs 1,830.