PSU rail, bank, and defence stocks rally up to 15% after Monday's crash

PSU shares rallied up to 15% across segments, including the railway, banking, and defence sectors on Tuesday, a day after the crash in PSU stocks.

Among the BSE PSU index stocks, railway stocks were the top gainers. Shares of IRFC, RVNL, and Ircon International rose by 8-15%.

Meanwhile, PSU bank stocks such as Punjab and Sind Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, UCO Bank, and Indian Overseas Bank surged by 4-6%. Bank of India and Punjab National Bank (PNB) also rose over 3%.


Simultaneously, defence PSU stocks, including Cochin Shipyard, GRSE, Midhani, and Hindustan Aeronautics, gained by 3-5%. Other PSU stocks such as ITI, NHPC, NLC India, Coal India, GICRE, and REC also saw gains ranging from 2-8%.

However, in Tuesday's session, certain PSU stocks like NBCC, MMTC, SJVN, SAIL, and BHEL experienced declines ranging from 3-6%.

PSU stocks have been on an upward trend since 2021, with the BSE PSU index experiencing gains for the third consecutive year, 41% in 2021, 23% in 2022, and 55% in 2023.

The BSE PSU Index, which had gained over 13% year-to-date, fell 4.4% on Monday, and 1.7% on Friday.
The decline in PSU shares in the past two trading sessions has caused a Rs 4.07 lakh crore erosion in the total market capitalisation of all state-owned companies to Rs 50.21 lakh crore.

"Results of many PSUs have also been below par and could lead to deeper selloffs in those stocks," said Sandip Sabharwal, founder, Asksandipsabhwawal.com, an investment advisory.

Post Q3 results, SJVN tumbled 25% after the company’s net profit fell 51% in the December quarter. IRCON and Rail Vikas Nigam also slumped over 11% each as investors were unimpressed by their December quarter results.

“The markets have sold off PSU stocks mainly due to the high underlining valuations,” said Souvik Saha, investment strategist at DSP Mutual Fund. “At stretched valuations, a slight mismatch between earnings estimate and actuals usually leads to a ruthless reaction by the markets.”

In the past six months, the BSE PSU index surged close to 26%, while the Smallcap 100 and Midcap 100 indices rose about 25-27% each.

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