This gas stock, which jumped 89% in a year, hit record high today; check out the reason

Stock market today: It was a good start to the week for Dalal Street on Monday, April 8, as investors lapped up stocks from all sectors except IT services. Both Sensex and Nifty hit fresh record highs during the trade. 

The broader market, too, participated in the rally. There were a lot of noteworthy stock-specific actions, and one stock that is worth mentioning is GAIL. The stock of the PSU, which is India’s leading natural gas company with diversified interests across the natural gas value chain of trading, transmission, LPG production & transmission, LNG re-gasification, petrochemicals, city gas, and E&P, among others, hit a record high of Rs 201.80 on the BSE today.

The stock jumped after Morgan Stanley gave an "overweight" rating to the stock with a target price of Rs 254 from Rs 213 earlier. The brokerage, in its note, said that, between FY24E–27E, the transmission volume is expected to increase by 8 per cent CAGR. The gas demand will increase during the summer season, it added. It further said that GAIL's marketing operating profits will remain steady while the EBITDA mix is seen improving.

Analysts at the brokerage firm note that the EBITDA share of transmission and petchem has increased to 60 per cent from the pre-COVID period of 51 per cent. 

In the coming quarters, petrochemical PAT and margins are expected to improve. Dividend payout is also expected to improve by 50 per cent while EPS, or earnings per share, is seen improving by 25 per cent. In a year, shares of GAIL have given a return of 89 per cent, In comparison, the benchmark Nifty50 index has risen over 28 per cent.