KARACHI: Several companies announced results for the first quarter 2014 and nine-months ended March 31 on Wednesday.

Financial figures of some of the companies that command greater investors’ interest included the following:

Engro Fertilizer: The Engro Fertiliser declared first quarter 2014 profit after tax (PAT) at Rs1.4bn translating into earning per share (EPS) at Rs1.12, which showed improvement over PAT at Rs0.6bn (eps Rs0.5) in the same period last year. The earnings amounted to EPS contribution of Rs2.60 as against EPS of Rs1.30 to parent Engro Corporation.

Revenue rose by 53pc year on year to Rs14.9bn for the first quarter, mainly due to estimated 49pc higher sale volumes.

“To recall, the company faced low capacity utilisation in the first quarter of 2013 due to non-availability of gas,” analyst Zeeshan Afzal said.

In the last quarter, both the plants of EFERT were operational at 80 to 90pc, due to 60mmcfd gas supply diverted from Guddu power plant.

However, gross margins stood squeezed to 37.9pc in the first quarter compared to 43.4pc in the first quarter owing to higher gas prices after imposition of GIDC.

Maple Leaf Cement: The Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF) announced 9MFY14 EPS at Rs4.57 up 10pc over Rs4.16 in the same period last year. The cement company’s sales grew by 9pc to Rs13.8bn, mainly led by 14pc rise in local cement prices.

Gross margins remained unchanged despite increase in electricity prices. However, 15pc decrease in finance cost allowed pretax profit to improve 15pc to Rs2.4bn, from Rs2.1bn in 9MFY13.

Fauji Cement Company: The FCCL announced nine month of fiscal year 14 earnings at Rs1.95bn (eps Rs1.45), up 27pc as against Rs1.57bn (EPS Rs1.14) in similar period last year.

During the period, sales increased by 8pc YoY to Rs 4.3bn while gross margins improved by 2pps to 34pc on the back of higher retention prices.

“Moreover, the company reduced finance costs by 31pc which helped pretax profit to surge 39pc YoY”, commented Nabeel Khursheed at Topline Securities.