Greaves Cotton advances 10% on heavy volumes; stock nears record high

Shares of Greaves Cotton moved higher by 10 per cent to Rs 166.90 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Thursday on the back of heavy volumes, in an otherwise range-bound market, amid expectations of a strong business outlook.

The stock was trading at its highest level since July 2017. It had hit a record high of Rs 178 on May 4, 2017. The trading volumes on the counter nearly doubled, with a combined around 9.9 million shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE till 11:22 am. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.20 per cent at 52,400 points.

In the past one week, the market price of Greaves Cotton has surged 23 per cent after the government increased the subsidy on electric two-wheelers by 50 per cent, under the second phase of the FAME India scheme, making them more affordable.

Greaves Cotton is a diversified engineering company and a leading manufacturer of cleantech powertrain solutions (CNG, Petrol and Diesel Engines), generator sets, farm equipment, e-mobility, aftermarket spares, and services. Greaves Cotton augmented its clean technology portfolio in the last mile affordable 2W personal mobility segment with Ampere Vehicles in 2018.

The government had made a partial modification of the scheme for faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II), including increasing the demand incentive for electric two-wheelers to Rs 15,000 per KWh from the earlier uniform subsidy of Rs 10,000 per KWh for all EVs, including plug-in hybrids and strong hybrids, except buses.

While announcing the March quarter results on May 4, Greaves Cotton’s management said the company’s new business (e-mobility and non-auto business) continues to grow and contributes 30 per cent to the overall business of the company. Greaves E-mobility segment has seen higher growth momentum, with Ampere gaining popularity due to the rise in demand for its electric two-wheelers (electric scooters) and electric three-wheelers (electric rickshaws).

The non-auto business segment has also seen significant growth and expected to do well in the coming quarter especially agriculture equipment due to the favourable monsoon ahead, the management said.