Linde India hits new high, zooms 34% in two days

In the past eight trading days, the market price of Linde India has rallied 52 per cent, as compared to a 2 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex

Shares of Linde India moved higher by 19 per cent to Rs 2,728 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday on the back of heavy volumes. The stock of industrial gases maker has zoomed 34 per cent in the past two days and was quoting at its all-time level on the BSE.

The trading volumes on the counter jumped five-fold, with a combined around 3 million equity shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE till 02:31 pm. In the past eight trading days, the market price of Linde India has zoomed 52 per cent, as compared to a 2 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex during the same period.

Linde India is a 75 per cent subsidiary of The BOC Group Ltd, UK (wholly-owned subsidiary of Linde AG and part of the Linde Group), and is one of the largest players in the domestic gases business. The Linde Group is the world's leading supplier of industrial, process and specialty gases, with operations across 100 countries.

For the first half ended June 2021 (H1CY21) Linde India reported robust results, with its consolidated profit before tax up 131 per cent year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 201.8 crore, against Rs 87.2 crore in the same period last year. Consolidated revenue from operations grew 53.6 per cent at Rs 960.6 crore on a YoY basis.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the urgency to ramp up the hospital infrastructure in the country as well as the supplies of medicines and oxygen, which augurs well for the company.

The revival of various other end-user segments also shows signs of optimism for the fortunes of the gases industry in the medium to long term. The continued focus of the company on its application technologies from the large suite of applications available within the Linde plc group also augurs well for the company.

The Project Engineering Division enjoys a comfortable order book, which stood at Rs 1,100 crore as of December 31, 2020. The growth and expansion programs in the various refineries, as well as the steel sector, are expected to create enormous opportunities for the project engineering division, Linde India said in the December 2020 annual report.