Festive season sweetens sugar stocks

MUMBAI: Shares of sugar manufacturing companies outperformed the benchmarks in Wednesday���s trade, on expectations that the festive season will increase demand for sugar and improve the profitability of these companies.

Said Alex Mathew, head ��� research, Geojit Financial, ���Festival season has led to the rise in sugar stocks. There is a high demand of sweet products during this time from October to December.���

���Sugar cane crop is expected to be good thanks to a good monsoon. Production in Maharashtra was expected to fall by 35 per cent earlier, but this did not happen because of good rains. Both supply and demand are high,��� said Mathew.

Geojit suggests traders to bet on sugar stocks on short term basis from one week to three months. Bajaj Hindustan and Sri Renuka Sugar are recommended by Geojit, and one can look for attractive valuations in Balrampur Chini, Dhampur Sugar, and Shakti Sugar.

On NSE at 12:47 pm, Renuka Sugar was up 1.07 per cent, Balrampur Chini Mills gained 0.74 per cent, Baja Hindustan climbed 4.26 per cent, Dhampur and Praj Industries advanced 2.77 per cent.