Mishra Dhatu Nigam hits fresh all-time high; stock zooms 85% in a month

The company's board of directors is scheduled to meet on March 3 to consider interim dividend.

Shares of Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI) continued their northward journey and rallied 13 per cent to hit a fresh high of Rs 278 on the BSE on Monday ahead of its board meeting tomorrow (March 3, 2020) to consider interim dividend.

The stock of the state-owned manufacturers of special steels superalloys and titanium alloys has surged 32 per cent in the past three trading days after the company announced, on Thursday, that its board will meet on March 3 to consider a proposal relating to declaration of interim dividend, if any, for the financial year 2019-20.

In the past one month, the stock has zoomed 85 per cent from the level of Rs 150 on February 3, as compared to 3 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex in the same period. It was trading at highest level since listing on April 4, 2018. With today’s rally, MIDHANI has surged 209 per cent against its issue price of Rs 90 per share.

At 09:27 am, MIDHANI was up 9 per cent at Rs 268, against 1.1 per cent rise in the benchmark index. A combined 854,345 equity shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far.

The company had reported over three-fold jump in net profit at Rs 60.50 crore in December 2019 quarter (Q3FY20). In comparison, it had posted a profit of Rs 16.90 crore in the year-ago quarter. The company’s net turnover during the quarter under review grew 35 per cent year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 206.9 crore, as compared to Rs 153.2 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

For the first nine months (April-December) of FY20, the company achieved a net turnover of Rs 509 crore, registering a growth of 36 per cent over the net turnover of Rs 374 crore recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. The company's net profit jumped 137 per cent YoY to Rs 119 crore during the same period.

The stabilisation of 1500T Forge press and other recent capital investments coupled with a healthy order booking, particularly from space sector, has enabled the mini-ratna defence public sector undertaking MIDHANI to achieve healthy turnover during the quarter. As on January 1, 2020, the company’s order book position stood at Rs 1,776 crore.

In 2018-19, the company’s annual report said that the commercial production of vehicle and personnel armouring products at the Rohtak plant is likely to come into operation by the end of FY20.

MIDHANI was established by the government with the prime objective of achieving self-reliance in manufacturing special metals and super alloys critical to the growth of the defence, space, and atomic energy segments. The company has mainly benefitted from the government’s thrust to space and defence programmes.