The markets: Big winners

Some punters - the horse-racing terminology is applicable to stock markets too - believe that since the big business groups are among the fastest growing industrial houses in the country you really can't go wrong if you bet on them. That is why Tata Steel used to be a market leader until it was overtaken by another big business scrip - Century. It is of course true that most big business houses-barring such glaring cases as Walchand which have in any case dropped out from the top ten-are doing pretty well but whether they are doing better than some lone riders is a moot point.Take Tatas, for instance, Tata Steel was quoted around Rs 120 at the start of the year but has shot up to 420 in less than 10 months. Telco has more than doubled from 333 to nearly 700 and Tata Chemicals has also done well. The scrips are not really worth that much from the dividend point of view and much of the rise is due to pure speculation.But then speculation is as much a part of the stock market as profits and dividends, and cannot be dismissed out of hand. Tata Steel is modernizing rapidly and with the higher prices that some of its better products will command, the company is expected to reach a turnover of Rs 750 crore or so within the next few years. The same is the. case with Telco whose turnover will possibly touch Rs 1,000 crore in a couple of years' time.Bright Future: Birlas are playing on a rather slow wicket right now but the group as a whole is not doing badly and some companies like Indian Rayon are doing exceedingly well. Even Hindustan Aluminium which is passing through a bad patch is expected to do better once the Kaisers are out of the scene and the equity picture is a little clearer. The company is planning a Rs 250-crore expansion at its existing plant as well as elsewhere.Another big business group, Delhi Cloth Mills, also has its hands full with a couple of major projects including a vehicles plant-which may be hived off to a separate company-and possibly a cement factory. It is also going into shipping through one of its associate companies.In fact, most big business groups are flexing their muscles and though it is doubtful whether every project on the drawing board will materialise, quite a few almost certainly will. Other blue chip companies are also expanding but they do not have the muscle of the big groups - it is not a coincidence that DCM ran away with their Toyota car project while at least three others were in the queue.However, not all big business houses are doing the running. Mafatlal, the third largest group, does not apparently have a single really big project up its sleeve and not all its companies are doing as well as they should. National Organic has, for instance, fallen far behind in the race and is generally ignored by the bulls. The same is the case with companies like Indian Dyestuff which was a front runner at one time.By and large, however, most big houses should do well in the near future, and some like Modis, better than most. In the south, there is the Kothari group which is diversifying rapidly from textiles and tea into electronics and engineering and is almost certainly the most tightly managed group in that part of the country. In fact, it is time the punters looked farther afield than Bombay and Calcutta and stick their necks out for a change. The risks may be high but so would be the pickings.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 28, 2013 09:20 IST--- ENDS ---

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The markets: Big winners

Some punters - the horse-racing terminology is applicable to stock markets too - believe that since the big business groups are among the fastest growing industrial houses in the country you really can't go wrong if you bet on them.

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