Shares of RailTel and Rail Vikas rally over 7%

NEW DELHI: The shares of two rail stocks, namely RailTel and Rail Vikas Nigam went up on Tuesday.

According to BSE, the shares of RailTel were trading with a surge of 6.59 per cent to Rs 133.50 apiece at 1.33 pm whereas Rail Vikas Nigam's shares were trading with a rise of 7.70 per cent to Rs 58.75 apiece on BSE on Tuesday.

The two rail stocks had been strengthening ever since there had been reports that the government might divest up to 10 per cent stake in RailTel, Rail Vikas and four other public-listed railway firms.

There had been reports that the divestment shall give the government a sum of Rs 12,000 crore.

According to the stock exchanges, the shares of RailTel moved more than 25 per cent during the last one month whereas the Rail Vikas' shares surged more than 55 per cent during the past one month.

On Thursday, RailTel had posted its profit after tax of Rs 55 crore for the quarter ended September, against Rs 26-crore profit after tax in June quarter (Q1), which is a surge of 112 per cent surge.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways said its profit before tax (PBT) was Rs 74 crore in Q2, against Rs 35-crore PBT in Q1, a surge of 111 per cent.

The company said it had an income of Rs 440 crore in the second quarter of FY22-23. The results showed that growth of 14 per cent over income of Rs 385 crore of Q1 of FY 22-23.

For the September quarter, Rail Vikas also posted a jump of 36.52 per cent in its net profit to Rs 381.22 crore for the quarter ended September 30, for fiscal 2022-23, against Rs 279.24 crore during the corresponding quarter the previous year.

The rail firm had also said its sales rose 21.94 per cent to Rs 4,908.90 crore in the quarter ended September 2022, against Rs 4,025.82 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2021.

This rally in rail stocks confirms the fact that the investors are betting on the government's push on infrastructure. Reports said that the Indian Railways is planning to spend more than Rs 1 lakh crore on developing and procuring assets.

The national transporter intends to procure 90,000 wagons over the next three fiscal years, for which the process of floating tenders will begin on March 16.