Bharat Earth Movers Ltd brought some joy to the market amid the spate of disappointment from techs by recording a nearly seven-fold rise in net profit.

The scrip of the earth-moving equipment company climbed 3% to Rs 84.20 by 9:57 IST on Thursday on BSE. BEML registered relatively sound volumes of 69,466 shares by that time.

On Wednesday, after market hours, BEML turned out a net profit of Rs 10.48 crore for Q3 ended 31 December 2002 compared to Rs 1.54 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Total income increased by 49.5% to Rs 440.69 crore (Rs 4.4 billion) from Rs 294.85 crore (Rs 2.94 billion) in DQ 2001.

For the six months ended 30 September 2002, the company registered a net loss of Rs 9.79 crore (net loss of Rs 14.57 crore) on a 1.72% increase in sales to Rs 428.33 crore (Rs 4.28 billion).

Recently, the company said that earnings could see a more than three-fold jump for the current fiscal (2002-03), on account of a cost-cutting exercise and rising sales.

For the full year ending 31 March 2003, BEML expects net profit to grow 236.5% to Rs 18 crore on a 17.6% increase in sales to Rs 1,675 crore (Rs 16.75 billion). The company's order book is worth Rs 2,013 crore (Rs 20.13 billion), while inventories were at Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion).

BEML was incorporated under the Government of India administrative's control by the ministry of defence in 1964. In 1992, GoI divested 25% of its shareholding over a period of two years. BEML is the largest manufacturer of earth moving equipment in India and the second-largest in Asia.

BEML manufactures a wide variety of equipment like heavy earth movers, rail coaches, military tanks, heavy-duty trucks, trailers, aircraft weapon loading systems and high-powered diesel engines. Its products find application in mining, construction, power, irrigation, fertilisers, steel, defence and the railways. It has manufacturing units at Bangalore and Mysore.

As on 30 September 2002, the promoters held 61.23% stake in BEML, while the public and institutions held 16.15% and 16.4%, respectively.