Shares of manganese ore mining company MOIL rallied nearly 6% in early trade on Monday after the state-owned company reported record production in December 2022. Breaking a multi-year record, the company, the largest producer of manganese ore in India, registered its best December production of 1,41,321 tonnes last month, MOIL said in its latest exchange filing.
Cheering the news, the shares of MOIL opened sharply higher at ₹169.05, up 5% against the previous closing price of ₹160.95 on the BSE. During the first two hours of trade so far, the share price of the mining company rose as much as 5.6% to ₹170, while the market capitalisation increased to ₹3,416.5 crore. In comparison, the BSE Sensex was trading 243 points higher at 61,084 levels.
The share price of miniratna company, formerly known as Manganese Ore (India), has given flat returns in the last one year, while it has risen 17% in the past months. The PSU stock touched its 52-week high of ₹198.95 on April 5, 2022, while it slipped to its 52-week low of ₹137.30 on June 20, 2022.MOIL, in its monthly operational updates, said December production of 141,321 tonnes was 18% higher than November 2022. Sales at 1,64,235 tonnes for the month has also been spectacular, with a growth of around 91% over November, it added.
Ajit Kumar Saxena, who recently took charge as CMD on December 29, stated it was heartening to see MOIL team coming together to register such a performance and expressed confidence that the same would be continued.
MOIL, which comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, is the largest producer of manganese ore in the country, with a market share of around 45%. Headquartered in Nagpur, the company operates eleven mines in adjoining districts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The company has an ambitious vision of almost doubling its production to 3 million tonnes by 2030. MOIL is also exploring business opportunities in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Odisha, besides other areas in Madhya Pradesh.
For the second quarter ended September 30, 2022, MOIL reported 7.4% decline in its net profit to ₹51.38 crore, while the net sales rose 4.5% to ₹267.70 crore as compared to the same period last year.
