IMFA hits 52-week high; zooms nearly 200% in four months

Since October 24, post Q2FY17 results, the stock rallied 51% against 6% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys (IMFA) has locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 475, also its 52-week high on the BSE.

The stock of India’s leading fully integrated producer of ferro chrome has zoomed nearly 200% in past four months from Rs 166 on September 6. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 8.7% during the same period. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 101 on February 29, in intra-day trade.

Till 10:44 am; a combined 82,176 shares changed hands and there were pending buy orders for 40,444 shares on the BSE and NSE.

Since October 24, post July-September (Q2FY17) results, the stock rallied 51% against 6% decline in the benchmark index.

IMFA had reported an over 12-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 42.31 crore in Q2F17 against Rs 3.46 crore in the year ago quarter. Revenues grew 14% at Rs 388 crore on year on year basis.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margin expanded to 28.84% in Q2FY17 against 18.15% in Q2FY16.

Higher output combined with an increase in ferro chrome prices has boosted the company’s performance for the second quarter of FY17 after it had reported losses for two successive quarters. There has been a broad rally across commodities and ferro chrome too has witnessed a turnaround after prices had hit multi-year lows.

For the first half (April to September) of FY17, it posted net profit of Rs 11.96 crore against a net loss of Rs 10.19 crore in the same period last year.

"After a turbulent period which saw a lot of turmoil and disappointing numbers the ferro chrome industry is sparkling once again. Demand has picked up and unviable capacity has been shuttered worldwide thus bringing about a much needed rebalancing,” said Subhrakant Panda, Managing Director & CEO of IMFA while announcing Q2 results.

Spot prices are running even higher than the recently concluded quarterly prices indicating there is some more steam left in the rally. Having advanced maintenance shutdowns to earlier in the year, we are now focused on maximising output and taking full advantage of the price rally, he added.