Stock Watch

Below Par Performance

The international sales of Tata Motors raised up to 46 percent in June which equivalent to 91,608 of its units due to a huge demand from commercial as well as passenger vehicles.

Luxury brands like Jaguar Land Rover sold around 20,189 units in June. This is 47 percent more than that during the same period last year. Sedans of Jaguar were sold at 59 percent last month whereas, Land Rover sold at higher than 41 percent.

The gross passenger vehicles units’ sales were 51,633 in June this year. This showed a 53 percent growth than last year.

The CV maker, Ashok Leyland has recently reported that the unit sale of the company has grown by over two-folds in the month of June.

According to the figures released by the company, it has sold close to 8,400 units in June, which is way up as compared to the 3,966 vehicles that the company sold in the same month last year.

Britain’s second-largest homebuilder by market value, Berkeley, has registered a year-on-year drop of 8.4 per cent in pre-tax profits at £110.3 million.

Annual revenues declined more than 12 per cent to settle at £615.3 million. The decline was the result of decline in the average selling price of property.

Still, the results were at the top end of City expectations, thanks to historically strong demand from overseas buyers. Berkeley said that the number of purchases by foreign home buyers jumped more than doubled during the last year.

The share prices of Connaught nosedived after it announced that profits would be under severe pressure in the coming days. The announcements lead to a loss of nearly £150m from its value and its shares were down 105p to close the day at 215p.

Experts also feel that the spending cuts initiated by the UK Government will significantly impact Companies working in the UK public sector. As a result of these steps, local councils will be increasingly looking to outsource these contracts.

Emami Group Company’s Emami Paper Mills has declared its fourth quarter financial results for the fiscal year 2009-10 and it has managed to post a marginal rise in net profit figure.

The company has posted a profit-after-tax of Rs 2.39 crore for the quarter that ended in 31st March, 2010. The profit-after-tax was reported to be Rs 2 crore for the same quarter in the financial year 2008-09. This PAT figure has grown up by 2% in this quarter as compared to the same quarter in the last fiscal. This has been informed by the firm in a filing at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Leading drug maker of the country Cipla has announced its year-end financial results for the fiscal year 2009-10 and it has posted an impressive rise in net profit figure.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 1,082.59 crore for the financial year that ended in 31st March, 2010.

The consolidated net profit was reported to be Rs 771.02 crore for the financial year 2008-09. This net profit figure has grown up by 40.41 % in this year as compared to the last fiscal. This has been informed by the firm in a filing at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

World's second largest software maker, Oracle Corporation saw a rise in its profit gains for the months of fourth quarter. This, said the company, has happened because of the increase sales from its acquired company, Sun Microsystems.

The sales have happened in the areas of database sales and server computers.

Meanwhile, in the earnings the acquisition costs have been excluded and the other expenses have been kept at 60 cents per share, the California-based Oracle said. This is much higher than what the experts had estimated and kept it at 54 cents.

Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc., a brewing and pub group in UK, announced today that its pretax profit grew 17% for the full year ended March 27, 2010. Fuller said that the strong full year profits were mainly attributable to the increase in total full year sales with strong cask ale sales during the period.

In its annual report, the group also revealed that it had acquired eight managed pubs in past 12 months. Fuller also announced a 12% hike in its full year dividend.

General Motors passed a memo this Thursday saying the company should only be referred to by its original brand name, Chevrolet instead of their nickname Chevy. GM admitted to passing the memo which reached the New York Times and in reply said "We love Chevy” insisting the company needed a global “consistent brand name.”