Shares of government-owned railway consultancy firm, RITES, are trading up 1 per cent on the National Stock Exchange. The stock had debuted at a modest premium of 3 per cent yesterday, but closed up 11 per cent. RITES’ Rs 466-crore issue saw a strong overall oversubscription of 67 times.
Almost all brokerages had recommended subscribing to the issue on account of its reasonable valuations (11 times), buoyant outlook on railway capex and robust order book (Rs 4,819 crore, four times FY17 revenues).
The company’s listing has been a rare performance in 2018, which has seen only four strong debut performances, namely Apollo Micro Systems, Amber Enterprises, Bandhan Bank and Lemon Tree Hotels, out of 17 listings so far. Primary market issues and listing have been affected by the tepid secondary market conditions. The Nifty 50 index is up 2 per cent so far in 2018, amid a lot of volatility.