The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. Ltd (IRCTC) stock rallied for a third straight day on Thursday, zooming nearly 26% in the last three sessions, ahead of the commercial launch of its third private train today.
IRCTC shares jumped as much as 5.9% in intra-day trade on Thursday to hit a fresh record high of Rs 1,939.95 apiece. The stock, which got listed on stock exchanges on 14 October 2019, has surged nearly six times from its IPO (initial public offering) price of Rs 320 per share in less than six months.
IRCTC on Thursday will start the commercial run of its third private train Kashi Mahakal Express on the Varanasi-Indore route after formally launching it on 16 February. Ticket bookings for the new train can only be made on the IRCTC website or mobile app IRCTC Rail Connect.
As of now, IRCTC operates Tejas Express on two routes. The first Tejas Express, which runs on the Lucknow-Delhi route was launched last year, while the second one started in January on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.
IRCTC last week announced that profit in the December quarter grew three-fold compared with a year ago to Rs 205.8 crore. Revenue, meanwhile, grew 64.6% year-on-year to Rs 715.98 crore in the December quarter.
At the operating level, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) grew 168.7% year-on-year to Rs 265.7 crore in the December quarter. Ebitda margin also expanded sharply to 37.1% from 22.72% in the year-ago quarter.
The company also declared an interim dividend of Rs 10 per share, which is 100% of paid-up share capital.
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Source: News18