He said some leading brokers of stock exchanges appeared to be buying and selling Kesoram shares in big quantities and as such prices were rising.

With the promoters, along with associates, currently holding 33 per cent and another close to 21 per cent being held by financial Institutions such as UTI and LIC, the company did not see any reason to be panicky, the official said.

Incidentally, the BK Birla group flagship had reported a net profit of Rs 7.43 crore during the nine-month period of 2000-2001 against a net loss of Rs 4.17 crore last year.

Profit during the third quarter was Rs 3.01 crore against a net loss of Rs 4.86 crore in the corresponding quarter of 1999-2000.

The company, however, did not give any specific reason for a sharp turnaround during the year, but it was believed that hiving off of textiles division to a separate company since this fiscal had helped.

A leading CSE operator said the rise in Kesoram scrip was not abnormal as share prices of a number of Cement manufacturing companies were on the upward trend because of improved prospect of the industry.

The company was reported to be under takeover threat over last three months when it was reported that a Bihar-based firm had acquired over five per cent stake.

On subsequent enquiries by the BK Birla group company, it was found that there was no company in such name that had claimed to have acquired the shares.

Officials said some leading operators might have interest in the company's scrips and as such were planting information.

Meanwhile, buoyed with the performance of its cement units, the Rs 733 crore company was considering increasing capacity if demand picks up further.

"Recently, demand for cement in the country as a whole picked up and if the situation continues to remain what it is for the next couple of months, we will do the needful to increase our existing capacity from 20 lakh TPA," the official had said.

The company, however, had at present no plans of setting up a greenfield project and would instead either opt to increase its own capacity or may go in for acquisition. "We have got sufficient limestone depots, which comprises the main raw material, and we are in a position to increase production almost at will so we do not have any proposal at present for going in for greenfield projects," the official said. He said there was also no plan with the company to improve capacity till the cement market improved and stabilised. The company had two cement plants, one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, with capacity of 9 and 11 lakh TPA respectively.