Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) shares surged more than 5 percent on Friday after mostly trading flat in the first four trading sessions of 2022.

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The upturn in IRCTC share price comes on a day when the overall market sentiment was positive and stocks across sectors, barring healthcare, witnessed gains and pushed the headline indices more than half a percent higher, in line with Asian peers. The 30-scrip Sensex scaled back above 60,000 and the broader Nifty was nearing 17,900 level at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, Manas Jaiswal of manasjaiswal.com gave a ‘buy’ on IRCTC for a target price of Rs 925 with a stop loss at Rs 855.

The shares of state-owned IRCTC have given a stellar return to investors since their listing in 2019. In the past year, the stock has risen more than 190 percent against the benchmark index Sensex, which witnessed a jump of about 24 percent during the period.

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IRCTC shares, however, plunged in October 2021 when the government asked it to share half of its convenience fee revenue with it. It was up over 120 percent till September 2021 but crashed 25 percent in October in a single session.

The swing in the IRCTC share price continued when the equity shares of Rs 10 face value were divided into five equity shares of Rs 2 each. The stock split was aimed at making it affordable, boosting liquidity in the capital market, and widening the shareholder base.

Also Read: From IRCTC to Tata Motors, stocks that took investors on a roller-coaster ride in 2021

Though the IRCTC stock made its stellar debut in the secondary market at Rs 644, a premium over the issue price of Rs 320, a share of the PSU is currently selling at 865.70. But, the journey hasn’t been all that smooth, the stock has witnessed a roller coaster ride since its listing on October 14, 2019.

After scaling to an intraday high of Rs 6,393 a year later, on October 19, 2021, which briefly took the market value to over Rs 1 lakh crore, it became the ninth public sector entity to join the club of Rs one lakh crore market capitalisation. The stock finished the day at an all-time high of Rs 5,363.

However, the stock fell almost Rs 1000 the following day and continued to correct. The share gave up the Rs 4,000 level and settled at Rs 913.75 on October 28, 2021. Analysts had then said the fundamentals of the stock were intact and that the correction came on the back of its overvaluation.

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At 1:30 pm, the IRCTC stock was trading 2.64 percent higher at Rs 865.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The shares gained 2.64 percent on the National Stock Exchange too to trade at Rs 865.50.

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(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Jan 7, 2022 2:30 PM IST