Select PSU stocks rebound; Mishra Dhatu Nigam zooms 29% from day's low

Midhani hit the upper circuit of 20 per cent at Rs 253, also its new high on the BSE on Thursday on heavy volumes. In the process, it surpassed its previous high of Rs 249

Shares of select public sector undertaking (PSU) companies have bounced back up to 29 per cent from their respective intra-day lows on Thursday on heavy volumes. Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (Midhani), NLC India, Bharat Dynamics, MSTC and IRCON International were up between 9 per cent to 29 per cent from their intra-day lows today. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.29 per cent at 39,778 points at 03:15 pm; recovered nearly 1 per cent from its intra-day low of 39,423.

Midhani hit the upper circuit of 20 per cent at Rs 253, also its new high on the BSE on Thursday on heavy volumes. In the process, the stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 249, recorded on February 20, 2020. The trading volumes nearly doubled, with a combined 6.6 million equity shares, representing 3.5 per cent of total equity of the company, changing hands on the NSE and BSE. There were pending buy orders for 130,098 shares on both the exchanges at 03:02 pm.

In past 10 trading days, Midhani has zoomed 53 per cent from level of Rs 165 on February 12, 2020, after reporting an over three-fold jump in net profit at Rs 60.50 crore in December 2019 quarter (Q3FY20). It had posted profit of Rs 16.90 crore in the year-ago quarter. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 4 per cent during the same period.

In December 2019, Business Standard had reported that Midhani wants to work in close co-operation with US companies to fast-track the development of key materials in India, apart from jointly finding ways to reduce the dependence on China's rare earth resources. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT

Among other stocks, NLC India moved higher by 13 per cent to Rs 61.60, recovering 15 per cent from day’s low of Rs 53.55 on the BSE. The board of directors have today declared an interim dividend of 70.60 per cent (i.e. Rs. 7.06 per equity share) for the financial year 2019-20. The trading volumes on the counter jumped 9-fold with a combined 8.4 million shares changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far.