MUMBAI: Buoyed with the bull run in the Indian stock markets post the general elections, multiplex companies’ stocks are also riding high. And this despite the fact that national multiplex chains have been at loggerheads with Hindi film producers and distributors and hence have not screened any major new Hindi movie for the last month and a half.
Despite low occupancy levels due to the strike and IPL, multiplex companies’ stock prices have been up between 25 – 70 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
While Inox Leisure’s stock price has been up 69.1 per cent in the last one month from Rs 33.50 to Rs 56.65; Adlabs Films, which operates BIG Cinemas, has seen a 44.71 per cent rise in share price from Rs 236.10 a month back to Rs 341.65 currently. On the other hand, PVR stock price has also seen a rise of 44.23 per cent over the last one month and the stock is quoting at Rs 123.75 currently from Rs 85.80 a month back.
Cinemax India witnessed a rise of 38.05 per cent in its stock price from Rs 46.65 to Rs 64.40; whereas Fame India’s stock has been up 25.49 per cent from Rs 12.67 to Rs 15.90.
"Although the upward trend has been witnessed in almost all media and entertainment stocks, with the Hindi film industry strike nowhere close to be being resolved, the rise in multiplex stock prices is being seen as negating the current crisis situation that the film industry faces," says an analyst.
