GAIL (India) rallies 8% in two days on strong March quarter results

Q4 EBITDA came in at Rs 2,475 crore, up 47 per cent YoY due to better profitability from gas transmission and gas trading segments.

Shares of GAIL (India) were up 5.5 per cent to Rs 106.90 on the BSE on Thursday, surging 8 per cent in the past two trading days after the company reported a 47 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in profit before tax (PBT) at Rs 2,556 crore for the quarter ended March 2020 (Q4FY20).

EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) came in at Rs 2,475 crore, up 47 per cent YoY due to better profitability from gas transmission and gas trading segments. The company’s reported profit after tax more than doubled to Rs 3,018 crore from Rs 1,122 crore mainly due to tax reversal as the company shifted to a lower tax rate. Revenues, however, fell 5.4 per cent YoY to Rs 17,753 crore during the quarter.

“Improved profitability of gas transmission and gas trading segment was a key positive. In the current quarter, gas offtake was lower due to closure of industries, and decline in oil prices led to lower product prices which impacted the performance,” ICICI Securities said in results update.

The pick-up in demand, performance in the gas trading segment as well as product price improvement will be important in the near term, it said.

At 10:50 am, the stock was trading 4.5 per cent higher at Rs 105.90 on the BSE, as compared to a 0.19 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 28 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE till the time of writing of this report.