Adani Ports shares hit 52-week high on record cargo volume in Feb

Shares of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) surged as much as 1.32% to hit a record high of ₹1,356.50 apiece on the BSE after the Karan Adani-led company reported a 33% year-on-year increase in cargo volume in February 2024.

The scrip opened higher at ₹1,345, up 0.46%, as against the previous closing price of ₹1,338.80. At 11:16 am, the share price of the company was trading 0.38% higher at ₹1,343.55. This is in line with the broader BSE Sensex, which was trading 64.66 points or 0.09% higher at 73,870.81.

Adani Ports' shares hit a 52-week low of ₹571.35 on March 28 last year. The company's market capitalisation stood at ₹2,90,365.88 crore with more than 1.06 lakh shares exchanging hands on the BSE, as against the two-week average of 1.36 lakh shares.

In the past one month, three months and one year, the counter has given 6.37%, 52.73% and 96.12%, respectively in return. In the year-to-date period, the counter has given 28.06% in return.

As per the regulatory filing by the Adani Group subsidiary, the country's largest private port operator handled 35.4 MMT (million metric tonne) of total cargo, implying a healthy 33% YoY growth. While most ports observed a YoY jump in volumes, Dhamra Port recorded its highest-ever monthly cargo of 4.22 MMT.

Between April 2023 and February 2024, Adani Ports handled 382 MMT of cargo, implying that it is well on track to surpass the 400 MMT mark before the end of the current financial year. The company hiked its cargo volume guidance to 400 MMT from 370-390 MMT in January this year. The company achieved the milestone of surpassing the 350 MMT cargo volume mark at its domestic ports in 318 days, says the company.

Record growth continued in the logistics segment with year-to-date rail volumes of around 542,000 TEUs, witnessing a growth of 21% year-on-year and GPWIS volumes of around 18 MMT, with a 21% year-on-year increase.

Notably, for the quarter ended December, Adani Ports handled around 109 MMT of overall cargo, with around 106 MMT contributed by our domestic ports portfolio. In the initial nine months of FY 24, APSEZ managed around 311 MMT of total cargo, recording 23% growth.

Meanwhile, in November last year, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the U.S. government's development finance institution, committed to lend $553 million (about ₹4,600 crore) to Adani Ports for the Sri Lanka port project. Adani Port is building a deep-water container terminal at Colombo Port, which is the largest and busiest transhipment port in the Indian Ocean. Adani Group also holds about 70% stake in Israel's Haifa port.