Info Edge India gains for third consecutive day, hits 2-month high

Shares of Info Edge (India) surged for the third straight day, up 6 per cent intra-day today, to hit a two-month high of Rs 2,242 on the BSE on Friday after the company invested Rs 6 crore in Happily Unmarried Marketing through its wholly-owned subsidiary.

“As part of company’s strategic investments, the investment would help the company to consolidate its position into the said line of business within the Internet Services industry,” Info Edge (India) said in regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Happily Unmarried, the company said, has diversified into men’s grooming through its brand Ustraa which is now driving the growth of the business. Ustraa is sold both online as well as through Modern and General trade.

Info Edge, owner of job portal naukri.com, is one of India’s premier online company in recruitment, matrimony, real estate, education and related services.

In the past three weeks, the stock has outpaced the market by surging 20 per cent, as compared to a 3 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. It is 8 per cent away from its all-time high of Rs 2,432 touched on June 3, 2019.

Between August 13th and September 12th, the month following its April-June quarter (Q1FY20) result, the stock fell 14 per cent after the company reported a 80 basis points drop in the EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin due to higher advertising expenses predominantly in Naukri and Jeevansathi verticals. During this period, the stock was also hit when 2,000 restaurants opted out of food aggregator platforms such as Zomato in which Info Edge (India) Ltd has about 26.4 per cent stake. The benchmark index had gained 0.4 per cent during the same period.
 

At 11:03 am, Info Edge (India) was trading 4 per cent higher at Rs 2,206, as compared to a 0.64 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 211,699 equity shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.