RailTel Corporation rises for third day; stock up 85% over issue price

The scrip jumped 19 per cent over its previous close to hit an intra-day high of Rs 173.50 on the BSE

Shares of RailTel Corporation of India surged for the third straight day on Tuesday to hit a fresh 52-week high on the BSE amid strong investor interest on the counter. The shares of the firm which got listed on Friday, have zoomed nearly 85 per cent over its issue price of Rs 94.

The scrip jumped 19 per cent over its previous close to hit an intra-day high, also its 52-week high, of Rs 173.50 on the BSE. At 11.40 am, the stock was trading 16 per cent up at Rs 168.60 while the BSE barometer Sensex was up 0.41 per cent at 50,054 around the same time.

The trading volume on the counter was high with a combined 34 million shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far.

The stock also witnessed interest from institutional investors. On Friday, February 26, Goldman Sachs India Fund and Nippon India Mutual Fund collectively bought 10.7 million equity shares of RailTel worth Rs 120 crore through block deals on the NSE, the exchange data shows.

Goldman Sachs India Fund bought 3.71 million equity shares in the company at Rs 113.57 per share on the NSE. Nippon India Mutual Fund bought 5 million shares at Rs 109 per share, while, Nippon India Mutual Fund-Multi Cap Fund bought 2 million shares at Rs 116.13 per share, data shows. The names of the sellers were not ascertained immediately.

The firm, on Saturday, scored an order worth Rs 105.82 crore by Ministry of Railways, it said in an exchange filing.

RailTel is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in India. As of January 31, 2021, the company had exclusive right of way along 67,415 route kilometre connecting 7,321 railway stations for laying optical fibre cable. RailTel offers leased line and VPN facilities and also provide IP-1 services. It provides strategic and critical network infrastructure to the central government and certain state governments. The company is also an implementing partner for the Bharat Net project to create optical fibre cable-based broadband infrastructure.

“RailTel has a strong financial position (debt-free) and has been consistently paying dividends since 2008. There are no listed peers for the company. The IPO is valued at 21.4 times price-to-earnings on an FY20 trailing basis, which is quite reasonable by looking at the strong future growth rates of the company,” Angel Broking had said in an IPO note.