Stock market analyst Ashwani Gujral has maintained ‘Buy’ rating on SAIL to achieve a target between Rs 170- Rs 175 in 1-2 trading sessions.

According to Mr. Gujral, interested traders can buy the stock with a strict stop loss of Rs 145.

Shares of the company, on Wednesday (June 24), closed at Rs 148.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of the shares traded stood at 2,268,935. It also hit an intraday high of Rs 150.80 and an intraday low of Rs 146.30.

Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 14.81 and 10.04 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 186 and a low of Rs 55.25 on BSE.

Around two-third of the steel utilized for making Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) has come from the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL)

While the $327-million Bandra-Worli Sea Link, due for inauguration after this month, has gobbled up around 22,235 tonnes of steel, the company’s (SAIL) share stood at more than 13,780 tonnes.

SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant has set higher production targets for hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel for the existing fiscal (2009-10).

The company also said that it would slash its Rs 780 billion growth plans by 13% with the intention to save up to Rs 100 billion.

The company is attributing the said cut in the capex to slowdown in global steel consumption.

The government sources said that the company’s board will meet next week to decide on the same.

Earlier, the company was planning to increase its steel manufacturing capacity from 14 million tons (mt) now to more than 26 mt by 2011-12. It had settled its growth plan some years ago to lift up itself to a company with international scales of operations. It was thought to have been finished by 2010-end, but was afterward changed to 2011-12.

In May, SAIL posted a growth of 12% to about a million tons over the year-ago period.

The company also said that Indian steel sales during the first two months of 2009 stood at around 1.9 million tons that is 21% higher than the same period last year.