Today, IRCTC shares jumped as much as 4 per cent hit a new high of Rs 1,995 on BSE. Later, IRCTC shares pared some gains and settled 1.5 per cent higher at Rs 1,952. In comparison, the BSE benchmark index Sensex fell 82 points today. IRCTC had a stellar run since getting listed on the stock exchanges on 14 October 2019 at Rs 644, a premium of over 100 per cent to the IPO issue price of Rs 320. In Budget 2020 proposals, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that more Tejas-like trains will be coming in future. IRCTC had last year launched its first Tejas Express which runs on Lucknow-Delhi route, followed by another Tejas Express on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. IRCTC follows dynamic fare scheme for both the trains. The Kashi Mahakal Express between Indore and Varanasi, the third private train operated by IRCTC, started its commercial run last week.
In the third quarter ended December 31, IRCTC’s net profit jumped to Rs 205.80 crore against from Rs 73.60 crore in a year-ago period, driven by the reintroduction of service charge ( Rs 15/ Rs 30 per ticket for non-AC/AC respectively) from 1 September 2019. Net sales rose 64.6 per cent to Rs 715.98 crore in October-December period from Rs 435.01 crore in the same period a year ago.
IRCTC had declared an interim dividend of Rs 10 per equity share. Its board had fixed 25th February as the record date for the purpose of payment of dividend. Monopoly business, a strong balance sheet and low floating stock and healthy return ratios have been attributed for the stellar run in IRCTC shares.
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