NEW DELHI: Stocks of sugar companies hogged the limelight in Tuesday's trade after the government increased import duty on sugar to 50 per cent in order to curb dumping of the commodity in India as international prices fell.
Reacting to the news, shares of sugar companies like Sakhti Sugars (up 5.49 per cent), Ugar Sugar WorksBSE 4.80 % (up 4.80 per cent), KM Sugar MillsBSE 2.00 % (up 3.55 per cent) and KCP SugarBSE 3.38 % (up 3.38 per cent). Meanwhile, Banari sugar was up by 2.67 per cent to Rs 1,848 on BSE.
Import duty on raw sugar, refined or white sugar that is imported by bulk consumers under tariff head 1701 will increase from the present 40 per cent to 50 per cent with immediate effect, the Central Board of Excise and Customs said in a notification dated July 10. No end date was specified for the duty increase.
Other stocks such as Shree Renuka Sugars gained 1.72 per cent to Rs 15.35 and Dharampur Sugar gained 1.89 per cent. Shares of Dalmia Bharat SugarBSE 0.53 % Industries and Bajaj Hindusthan SugarBSE -0.21 % gained 1.26 per cent each while those of Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar gained 0.63 per cent to Rs 16 and Balrampur Chini Mills was up 0.72 per cent at Rs 154.50.
"The hike has come in time. It will safeguard the industry," said T Sarita Reddy, president of the Indian Sugar Mills Association. "If we had imported more sugar, it would have led to collapse of the industry and prices would have gone down drastically."
The BSE Sensex was trading 73 points up at 31,789 at around 10.30 am (IST). It opened at 31,789 and scaled to an all time high of 31,842.37 in early trade.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com