Delta Corp hits 14-month high, surges 36% so far in March

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (4.31 per cent) and his wife Rekha Jhunjhunwala (3.19 per cent) collectively held a 7.5 per cent stake in Delta Corp at the end of December quarter

Shares of Delta Corp continued their northward movement in Wednesday's trade as they rallied 8 per cent to hit a 14-month high of Rs 201.95 on the BSE in an otherwise weak market. The stock of the largest gaming company in India was trading at its highest level since January 2020.

At 01:23 pm, the scrip was up 4.5 per cent at Rs 195 as compared to a 0.32 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. Thus far in the month of March, during 12 trading days, the stock has surged 36 per cent. In comparison, the benchmark Sensex has added 2.2 per cent.

Delta Corp is the largest and the only listed company engaged in India’s casino gaming industry. The Company is also the sole organised player in the industry. It operates in all the formats of gaming i.e. Live Casino, Electronic Casino and Online gaming.

Delta Corp in the financial year 2019-20 (FY20) annual report said that India is among the top five online mobile gaming countries globally.

The gaming industry is undergoing a massive evolution due to increasing mobile penetration. There has been over 20 per cent growth in casual gaming because of smartphones. The count of online gamers in India grew 31 per cent in 2019 to reach around 365 million and is expected to reach 440 million by 2022.

Meanwhile, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (4.31 per cent) and his wife Rekha Jhunjhunwala (3.19 per cent) collectively held 7.5 per cent stake in Delta Corp as on December 31, 2020, the shareholding pattern data shows.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Nazara Technologies hit the primary market with its Rs 583-crore initial public offering today. The diversified and online gaming firm’s three-day issue will run through March 17-19 and will be entirely an offer for sale (OFS).

Nazara Technologies is a leading India based diversified gaming and sports media platform with a presence in India and across emerging and developed global markets such as Africa and North America, with offerings across the interactive gaming, eSports and gamified early learning ecosystems.

"Favorable macro-economic and demographic drivers, growth in adoption of gaming and online learning and improvement in digital payment and tech infrastructure in India provides a great opportunity for growth of the company. Further, with rapidly rising per capita spends and high internet and smartphone penetration, India as a market for each of the company’s offerings is still far from saturation, both in terms of the number and engagement of users as well as monetisation opportunities, thereby providing huge potential for growth," ICICI Securities said in an IPO note.