With just two days to go for the Railway Budget for FY2017, shares of companies that supply wagons, coaches and signalling equipment to Indian Railways plunged Tuesday on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The losses ranged from 2 percent to 8 percent.
The biggest loser was Kolkata-based Titagarh Wagons, which dropped 7.43 percent to close at Rs 127.05. The company is the second-largest freight wagon-maker in India and had reported consoldated revenues of Rs 276 crore and net loss of Rs 3.20 crore for the quarter ended December 2015.
Texmaco Rail & Engineering shed 5.69 percent to settle at Rs 133.45. The Kolkata-based wagon-maker, also the largest supplier of wagons to Indian Railways, reported revenues of Rs 253.83 crore and net profit of Rs 11.97 crore for the December 2015 quarter.
Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers), which is in the business of manufacturing and installing signalling and telecommunication equipment and execution of gauge-conversion projects of the Indian Railways, also suffered a downtrend, losing 6.85 percent to close at Rs 137.30.
Passenger coach-maker and defence ministry undertaking BEML saw its share drop 2.62 percent to Rs 1,013.15 on the bourses. The company's net sales stood at Rs 756.99 crore while net profit was Rs 3.12 crore for the Decembe 2015 quarter.
The Siemens stock ended the day with a loss of 2 percent at Rs 1,017 on the BSE.
Other Indian companies that supply products to the world's fourth-largest rail network include Timken India and KEC.
The massive rail infrastructure programme entailing an expenditure of about Rs 8.5 lakh crore announced last year by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has also seen multinationals evincing interest in rail projects. These include BEML-Alstom, Hitachi-Ansaldo, Hyundai, Melco, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Toshiba, CAF-Bombardier, CSR Zhushou, according to a note by brokerage Antique Broking.
The Railway Budget for 2016-17 will be presented by Prabhu Feb. 25.
