Quarterly and Annual Results - Tata Steel, Thomas Cook, Bata India

There were declaration of quarterly and annual results from few companies this past week i.e. 23 - 27 Feb 2009. This post summarizes some of them

Thomas Cook - They announced their annual results for the period 01-JAN-2008 to 31-DEC-2008. Thomas Cook posted a net profit of 3732.50 lakhs and recommended a dividend of 37.5% on each equity share of Re 1/

Tata Steel - It reported a net profit of 73221.00 lakhs in its third quarter (01-OCT-2008 to 31-DEC-2008 ). The stock ended up by a little over 5% on friday

Bata India - They reported their annual results for the period from 1st Jan 2008 till 31st Dec 2008 and the company has recommended a dividend @ 25%. The net profit was about 5905.70 which is better than last year.

The last company covered in this post is Videocon industries. It reported a net profit of 109893.00 for the year 01-OCT-2007 to 30-SEP-2008 and it has recommended dividend of Re. 1/-per share. The stock ended the day down by a little over 1.5%

Invest in Indian Auto companies now and make MONEY

Auto sector has been doing pretty bad for at least a couple of years now. Last year was a disaster as we all know. My investments in Maruti and Tata Motors, which were made in 2007 when I thought that they were cheap, went down 50% and 90% resp in 2008. Maruti has come back well but Tata Motors is still down 80%. I did not look at the auto companies for quite some time now but with the interest rates coming down there is hope that the bad ends are about to end.

With the hope that this could be the right time to get in so that I am in before the stocks run up too far I decided to take a look at some of the auto companies. It became quite clear after a quick look that I have already missed the bus with some of the frontline stocks. Here are some of the numbers

Maruti Suzuki is up 50 % from its 52 week in December, Bajaj Auto is up more than 50% its 52 week dec low and Hero Honda, which has outperformed the whole of last year, is around its 52 week high. The case of Hero Honda shows that a good profitable business is what it matters and not the sector. These were the outperformers and other like Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS and Ashok Leyland are up 20 odd %. The only frontline company that missed this bus is Tata Motors and the reasons are pretty well know so its hovering around its 52 week low.

Performance has been good only for the auto companies but not the ancillaries. Exide Industries, Amara Raja and Shanthi gears are around their 52 week lows, maybe its time to get in them so not to come back in few months time and find them 50 odd % up.

As far as I am concerned there is n't much downside in autos at the moment so I will put in some money and see where it ends up at the end of the year.

RK