ITC moves up on the buzz of increasing stake in EIH

ITC Ltd. | Cigarettes/Tobacco | FMCG | BSE: 500875 | NSE: ITC

11 Sep 2012 Evaluate

ITC is currently trading at Rs. 264.30, up by 0.15 points or 0.06% from its previous closing of Rs. 264.15 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 264.85 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 265.45 and Rs. 263.50 respectively. So far 19311 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 1 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 271.50 on 30-Aug-2012 and a 52 week low of Rs. 185.20 on 26-Sep-2011.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 269.25 and Rs. 260.15 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 207822.84 crore.

The Institutions and Non-Institutions held 51.87% and 47.83% stake in the company, respectively.

ITC, India’s biggest cigarette maker has reportedly increased its stake in EIH, Oberoi Group Company by 1%. The company has bought 5.73 million shares at Rs 73 a share through its subsidiary, Russel Credit, at a total cost of Rs 41.89 crore.

Following the acquisition, ITC’s stake in EIH has increased to 15.89%. ITC has acquired EIH shares at a price which is a month’s low.

Recently, the company announced that it is aiming to venture into dairy products, drinks and perhaps even healthy breakfast foods to expand its money-losing consumer products business. Normally, it sells 80% of the cigarettes in the world's second most populous country where 275 million people use tobacco products but as India follows the rest of the world in adopting anti-smoking regulations, the company's core tobacco business is getting compressed.