New Delhi: The sugar industry witnessed a significant boost on Thursday as authorities revised their projections for Maharashtra’s sugar output in the crop year 2023–2024, pushing up stocks of sugar companies like Dalmia Bharat Sugar, Balrampur Chini Mills, Triveni Engineering, Dwarikesh Sugar.

News Agency IANS quoted market research analysts stating that the revised forecast, a 14% reduction, marked the lowest production in the region in the past four years.

Notably, Maharashtra contributes a substantial one-third of India’s total sugar production. However, in the upcoming season commencing on October 1, 2023, it is expected to yield just 9 million metric tonnes of sugar, a decrease from the 10.5 million tonnes produced in 2022-23. 

This reduction in sugar production has triggered expectations of rising sugar prices, both in domestic and international markets, which, in turn, can ignite further optimism in sugar stocks, IANS quoting Vaibhav Vidwani, a Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio wrote.

As the sugar industry looks forward to potentially higher prices, several sectoral indices closed in the green at the end of the trading day. Leading the way were Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal, showing gains of 1.64% and 1.49%, respectively.

Among individual stocks, UPL, Hindalco, Mahindra and Mahindra, ONGC, and Divis Lab emerged as the top gainers on the Nifty index. Meanwhile, Asian Paints, HDFC Life, Coal India, Britannia, and LTIMindtree were among the stocks experiencing losses.