KEC International surges 12% in volatile market on Rs 1,829-cr order win

Shares of KEC International hit a record high of Rs 522.05, after tge shares surged 12 per cent on the BSE in Friday's intra-day trade, after the company announced that it has secured new orders of Rs 1,829 crore across its various businesses. The stock of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) majors surpassed its previous high of Rs 486.45 on March 3, 2021.

At 12:32 pm, KEC International was quoting 6.6 per cent higher on the back of heavy volumes in an otherwise volatile market. Trading volumes on the counter jumped over nine-fold with a combined 2.6 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.08 percent at 60,973 points, after hitting a high of 61,420 in intra-day trade today. The benchmark index touched an intra-day low of 60,868 points.

KEC International said its transmission & distribution (T&D) business has secured orders of Rs 656 crore for T&D projects in Europe and Americas. The civil business has secured orders of Rs 935 crore for infra works in the water pipelines and industrial segments in India.

The company's railway business has secured orders of Rs 144 crore in the technologically enabled/ emerging metro segments in India, while cable business has secured orders of Rs 94 crore for various types of cables in India and overseas.

The management said the company's year to date order intake has now surpassed Rs 7,000 crore, with a robust growth of around 70 per cent vis-à-vis last year. The company has widened its international footprint with the first T&D EPC order in Europe.

"The orders in the Americas, secured by our subsidiary SAE Towers, demonstrate a revival in the North American market. Railway business has expanded its order book in the technologically enabled areas of metros. The orders in Civil have strengthened the company’s presence in the water pipelines & industrial segments and further diversified clientele," the management said.

"Execution is expected to gather momentum with the ironing out of the supply chain issues, substantial improvement in labour availability, and timely customer collections. Competitive intensity during the H1FY22 ordering has been high due to a couple of candidates shoring up the order books ahead of their IPO," HDFC Securities said in the industrial sector Q2 results preview.

Larger orders were missing and are likely to pick up during H2FY22. With central elections coming up in Q1FY25E, we expect strong ordering momentum to build up in H2FY22/23E. The government is gearing up to launch the first ever National Infrastructure Masterplan - Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti (to be unveiled on 13 Oct 2021) - which envisages Rs 100 trillion infrastructure investments. This shall be positive for Industrials and drive government/private Capex, the brokerage firm said.