The company had earlier received a big order from Delhi government to supply buses for Delhi Transport Corporation. Now, the company has received an order to supply 30 trucks for the Delhi fire service. The company's yet to be launched `1512' model 15-tonne capacity vehicles will be converted into small fire tenders, having enough mobility and easy parking.

Even the courier companies like Federal Express and Transport Corporation ofIndia (TCI) are using Leyland's small trucks for transportation. According to marketmen, the company is also in talks with several state governments to supply water tankers.

According to analyst, the company is also likely to raise heavy and light commercial vehicles prices by Rs 5,000-15,000 per unit. The scrip in the last 30 trading sessions has moved from Rs 49 to Rs 84.5. Although the scrip closed lower on Wednesday at Rs 79.10, marketmen feel the way company is going, aggressively marketing its products, the scrip should cross Rs 95-100 in the next couple of months.

L&T up on fresh orders

As Larsen & Toubro bagged fresh orders worth Rs 133 crore, the counter saw some buying interest on Tuesday. While Tuesday was marked by not much activity in many of the pivotals, L&T stock gained Rs 2, from Rs 287 to Rs 289. During the day, nearly 7.65 lakh shares were traded. The company has bagged the order for supplying water distribution pipelines to Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board.Also, the company alongwith Engineers India Ltd has won a Rs 196 crore contract from ONGC for its clamp-on related modification and pipelines project in the Bombay High and heera oil fields.The company is targetting to achieve an export turnover of Rs 3500-4000 crore by the next six years (which will be 15 per cent of the total turnover). The software will contribute a sizeable portion of Rs 1,500 crore to the total exports and industrial machinery will account for Rs 1,000 crore and projects will bring in Rs 500-1,000 crore. The cement export is expected to be around Rs 400 crore. By 2005, the company has set a sales turnover target of Rs 25,000 crore. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) business are expected to contribute about 45-50 per cent of the total turnover. The cement division and electrical and switchgear division are expected to contribute 20 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, to the total turnover. L&T has already crossed Rs 7,200-crore turnover for fiscal 1998-99 (up 24 percent on an y-o-y basis) against Rs 5,768 crore in 1997-98.

Banking blues

The performance of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur for 1998-99 seems to be largely in line with the market expectation. However, on the NPA front, the bank has moved from bad to worse. The poor asset quality of the bank has seen its net NPAs shooting from 7.13 per cent to a dangerous level of 10.45 per cent. This also casts a shadow on the future profitability of the bank. The market has also reacted to the poor performance and the stock shed 5.25 per cent from Rs 240 to Rs 227 in the past six trading sessions. Thanks to the spurt in NPAs, the provision for NPAs has shot up by almost 53 per cent from Rs 55.6 crore in fiscal 1998 to Rs 84.97 crore in fiscal 1999. As a result, profit margins at net level have suffered. The bank has posted a marginal growth of 1.54 per cent rise in net profit from Rs 90.47 crore to Rs 91.87 crore. This is against an 11 per cent growth in total income to Rs 1127.44 crore.

Deposits have grownfrom Rs 6525.36 crore to Rs 7740.81 crore. Advances showed a not-so-impressive growth of 4.9 per cent from Rs 3660.48 crore to Rs 3840.82 crore. The bank also had to bear an additional expenditure on account of hike in wages and salaries to the tune of Rs 30 crore. The capital adequacy of the bank has improved to 12.26 per cent. On an equity base of Rs 50 crore, EPS works out to Rs 183.74 (face value of the equity share Rs 100). This discounts the current market price by a multiple of only 1.23, which shows that the stock is poorly discounted on the bourses.

--Jai Kumar NR & Sunita Nagpal