Petronet LNG soars to record high on robust June nos

Shares of Petronet LNG Ltd jumped by as much as 9% in morning trade on the bourses today after the the nation's largest liquefied natural gas importer reported robust numbers for the June quarter.

The company's June quarter net profit more than doubled to Rs 256.7 crore from Rs 111.37 crore a year earlier. The turnover rose 83% to Rs 4,623.31 crore in the first quarter of 2011-12.

Reacting to the robust numbers, shares of the company opened on a bullish note and then surged to a 52-week high of Rs 166.60, up 8.78% from their previous closing price.

Similar movement was witnessed on the National Stock Exchange, where the stock opened at Rs 154.10, then jumped 8.63% to an intra-day high of Rs 166.75, which was also a 52-week high for the company on the NSE.

Marketmen attributed the surge in the counter to the stellar performance by the company and positive announcements by the company like plans to increase the capacity of its Dahej terminal to 15 MT a year from the current 10 MT per year by 2015.

The stock was later trading at Rs 163.40, up 6.69% on the BSE, and at Rs 163.50, up 6.51% on the NSE, at 1111 hours. On the volume front, nearly 18.12 lakh shares of the company exchanged hands on the BSE and 99.35 lakh shares got traded on NSE by 1111 hours.

"The profit has been higher because we were able to regasify and send out more volumes," Petronet Managing Director and CEO A K Balyan said yesterday, adding that Petronet's Dahej terminal processed 2.62 million tonnes (MT) of LNG during the quarter, compared to 1.87 MT a year-ago.