By the first few minutes of trade, 4.9 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on BSE .

The stock was trading at Rs 247 at the outset of trading. The stock has hit a low of Rs 240.10 and a high of Rs 264.

At the rate of Rs 247, the scrip discounts its FY-2005 EPS of Rs 4.80 by a PE multiple of 51.4. The company has a paid-up equity of Rs 27.23 crore and the face value of the scrip is Rs 10.

Royal Orchid Hotels (ROHL) operates and manages a chain of four hotels, Royal Orchid, with 436 rooms. Three, of the four hotels, are in Bangalore and one is located in Mysore.

ROHL proposes to invest Rs 17.34 crore and Rs 11.86 crore to take hotels on long-term lease in Pune and Hyderabad respectively. Another Rs 29.68 crore will be invested on modernising and renovating existing properties in Bangalore.

For April-September 2005, the company made a net profit of Rs 8.38 crore, on a consolidated basis, on revenue of Rs 34.99 crore. For FY 2005, it made a net profit of Rs 12.99 crore with a revenue of Rs 56.99 crore.