BSE Smallcap index hits record high; Aurionpro zooms 141% since May

The S&P BSE Smallcap index hit a record high 31,396.64, gaining nearly 1 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade after a strong rally in railway, auto and hospitals stocks. The index surpassed its previous high of 31,304.44, touched on January 18, 2022. In past one month, the S&P BSE Smallcap index has outperformed the market surging by 6.6 per cent, as compared to 5.9 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Midcap index and 1.9 per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex. About 53 stocks from the smallcap index hit a new 52-week high in trade today. Aurionpro Solutions, Bharat Dynamics, Centum Electronics, Cigniti Technologies, Data Patterns (India), Dreamfolks Services, Fusion Micro Finance, IOX Exchange, KDDL, Mahindra CIE Automotive, Safari Industries and Syngene International were some of the prominent stocks to hit their respective all-time high today. Rail Vikas Nigam, Ircon International and RailTel Corporation of India from railway related stocks; KMC Speciality Hospitals (India), Artemis Medicare Services and Aster DM Healthcare from hospitals; and Force Motors, NRB Bearings, Munjal Showa and Rico Auto Industries from auto space rallied between 5 - 8 per cent today. With macro stability at bay, stable commodity prices and corporate earnings showing resilience by growing in healthy double digits, analysts at ICICI Securities retained their positive stance on domestic markets. Management commentary was upbeat on domestic demand prospects with the rural space seeing green shoots amid healthy Rabi crop and robust farm cashflows. On domestic macroeconomic front, data came in encouraging with GDP growth for Q4FY23 coming in ahead of estimates at 6.1 per cent with FY23 growth rate pegged at healthy 7.2 per cent and India retains its tag of being the highest growing major economy across the globe. Inflation also eased with latest CPI reading coming in at 4.7 per cent with expectations ripe for interest rate upcycle nearing its peak. The government has also walked the talk on the fiscal consolidation front with fiscal deficit for FY23 at 6.4 per cent. Encouragingly, FII flows have also turned positive starting from March 2023, the brokerage firm said in index outlook. Among the individual stocks, Aurionpro Solutions hit a new high of Rs 880, up 5 per cent in intra-day trade. Since May, the stock of technology solutions company has more-than-doubled or zoomed 141 per cent from Rs 364.20 on April 28. Aurionpro Solutions caters to needs of banking, mobility, payments, and government sectors. The management believes that the company is in a great position to continue its strong growth trajectory and expect FY24 growth to be in the range of 30-35 per cent. With a strong order book of over Rs 820 crore, the management expects sustainable growth trajectory going forward. The company is a dominant player in the banking & fintech industry in Asia and one of the few integrated global players in the Automated Fare Collection (AFC) space. Shares of Force Motors (FML) too hit a new high of Rs 2,224, up 5 per cent in intra-day trade today. In past two days, it rallied 17 per cent, after the company reported 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and month-on-month (MoM) jump in total sales at 2,645 units in May month. In the year-ago period, the company had sold a total of 2,026 units, whereas last month, it had sold total of 2,042 units, the company said. FML is a flagship company of the Abhay Firodia group. The company is fully vertically integrated manufacturer of small and light commercial vehicles (LCVs), multi-utility vehicles, and agricultural tractors. Under the auto components division, engines are assembled for Mercedes-Benz India and BMW India. The primary brands in LCVs and multiutility vehicles include Traveller, Trax, Gurkha and Shaktiman, while the brands in tractors are Balwan, Orchard, Abhiman and Sanman. Meanwhile, in the past eight trading days, the stock price of FML has zoomed 59 per cent after the company reported robust earnings during the March quarter of FY23. FML's consolidated net profit came in at Rs 146.62 crore, as against a net loss of Rs 42.77 crore, which it had posted in the year-ago quarter (Q4FY22), and loss of Rs 15.57 crore in the previous quarter (Q3FY23).