This PSU stock rallies 134% in one month, scales 8-year high

Hindustan Copper hit an eight-year high of Rs 128, up 10 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday on the back of heavy volumes

Shares of Hindustan Copper continued their northward movement in Wednesday's session and rose 10 per cent to hit an eight-year high of Rs 128 on the BSE amid heavy volumes. The stock of state-owned copper producer was trading at its highest level since February 2013.

At 11:20 am, the stock was trading 9 per cent higher at Rs 127 on the BSE as against a 0.88 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The trading volumes on the counter more-than-doubled with a combined 20.9 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

Hindustan Copper, a vertically integrated copper producer, is primarily engaged in the business of mining and processing of copper ore to produce refined copper metal. The government of India holds a 76.05 per cent stake in the company through the President of India.

In the past one month, the market price of Hindustan Copper has zoomed 134 per cent after the company reported turnaround results with a consolidated net profit of Rs 108.19 crore in the December quarter (Q3FY21). It had posted a net loss of Rs 95.61 crore in Q3FY20. Revenue from operations jumped nearly 6-fold to Rs 538.42 crore from Rs 93.29 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

For the first nine months (April-December) of the financial year 2020-21 (9MFY21), Hindustan Copper posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 147 crore against a net loss of Rs 55 crore during the same period of last fiscal.

In the entire previous financial year 2019-20 (FY20), the company had posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 569 crore. The financial performance during FY20 was affected due to non-lifting of copper concentrate by the buyer owing to reasons attributable to the international market and one time write off of closing stock amounting to Rs 257.10 crore.

Growing demand from the power sector in view of the government laying thrust on renewable energy and increasing demand from the households for consumer durables increased demand for copper in India. The manufacturing of electric vehicles (EV) also augments well for the consumption of copper as EV use four times more copper than traditional internal combustion engines.

Copper is essential to EV technology and its supporting infrastructure and the evolving market will have a substantial impact on copper demand, Hindustan Copper said. The per capita copper consumption in India is expected to increase from the current level of 0.5 Kg to 1 kg by 2025. The average per capita copper consumption in the world is 3.2 kg, the company said in its FY20 annual report.