Geometric Software was northbound on the market's compass and some of this rise was attributed to a correction phase.

By 10:45 IST, the scrip of the engineering software company bounded up 4.07 per cent to Rs 449 on BSE. It registered volumes of over 1.66 lakh shares on BSE by then.

Geometric Software proved volatile in the nine sessions between 31 December 2002 and 13 January 2003. It lost 12 per cent to Rs 490.60 from Rs 431.45.

Some of the rise in the scrip is attributed to news that Geometric Software has formed an alliance with EDS, the world's second-largest software services company, enabling the Indian company to bid for all the CAD/CAM projects being undertaken by the multinational software giant.

There is also renewed buying interest in the scrip from market players on hopes that second rung software companies like Geometric and Mastek will come out with solid results in future.

On 9 January 2003, Geometric Software after market hours, unveiled its 31 December 2002 results. For the third quarter, GSSC registered a 25 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 4.66 crore compared to Rs 3.73 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Net sales increased by 31.3 per cent to Rs 21.94 crore from Rs 16.71 crore in DQ 2001.

The company has maintained consolidated PBT guidance at around Rs 20 crore for FY 2002-03, which is 48 per cent higher than the previous FY's performance.

Analysts feel the company is seeing a healthy build-up of inquiries across all regions. They believe this will translate into consistent business opportunities over the next few quarters.

Analysts are confident that the company is on the right track and will be able to achieve its guidance for the full year.

Added interest on the counter was generated when the scrip was included in the extended list of derivatives trading last week.

On Thursday (9 January 2003), the Securities and Exchange Board of India permitted derivatives trading in 31 additional scrips on NSE, taking the total to 60 stocks and 21 additional scrips on BSE, taking the total to 50 stocks. Till now, stocks of only 29 companies figure in the derivatives list.

The inclusion of additional companies in the derivatives segment is expected to generate more interest in these stocks as well as increase activity on the counter, feel players.