L&T, BHEL shares rise on nuke deals

MUMBAI: Commercial nuclear power generation activity in India is back in the limelight with Larsen & Toubro and even Bharat Heavy Electricals having entered into joint ventures with overseas companies for their forays into nuclear equipment production in the recent past.

Analysts maintain that apart from the aforementioned companies, Areva T&D, Walchandnagar Industries, Tractor India are likely to be beneficiaries of this trend in the long term (2-3 year period).

BHEL has approved a massive expansion programme to enhance its manufacturing capacity to 20,000 MW by 2012 and its foray into nuclear power equipment production such as generators, turbines and nuclear reactors along with joint venture partners. The company has entered into talks with French major Areva, General Electric and a few others for this purpose.

On its part, L&T is arming itself with the capability to build 1,000 megawatt (MW) nuclear power plants. The company recently entered into a partnership with US nuclear power equipment manufacturer Westinghouse for this purpose.

���While there will be not tangible benefits to the bottomline in the immediate term, this theme will play out for these companies in the long term," an analyst tracking these companies told ET.

Walchand Industries and Tractor India have exposure to this business via their ancillary units which build material handling equipment etc for nuclear power plants. The stock of Areva T&D was trading at Rs 191.90 up 2.10% at around 12.21 pm, while BHEL was trading flat at Rs 1399, L&T was trading at Rs 728.20 up 1.48%, Walchandnagar Industries was trading at Rs 99.30 up 2.06% while Tractor India was trading flat at Rs 113.50 on the BSE.