Real estate shares in focus; Godrej Properties hits record high, DLF up 5%

Shares of real estate companies were trading higher for the second straight day on Wednesday with Godrej Properties hitting an all-time high, while DLF was quoting near its 52-week high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 10:43 am, the Nifty Realty index was the largest gainer among sectoral indices and was up 1.8 per cent, extending its previous day's 2 per cent gain on the NSE. In the past month, the realty index has surged 21 per cent against 8 per cent rise in the benchmark Nifty 50 index.

Godrej Properties hit an all-time high of Rs 936, up 5 per cent on Wednesday, surging 15 per cent in past two trading days, after the Mumbai-based real estate developer recorded its best-ever quarterly sales performance in the January-March quarter (Q4FY19). The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 917 recorded on May 8, 2018 in intra-day trade.

Godrej Properties sold over 2,900 homes with a total area of approximately 3.75 million square feet and a booking value in excess of Rs 2,100 crore during the quarter. Q4FY19 was the company’s best-ever quarter for bookings, eclipsing its previous best ever residential sales quarter, achieved in Q3 FY19, by approximately 50 per cent.

DLF has rallied 5 per cent to Rs 210, extending its previous day's 2 per cent gain on the NSE. The stock was trading at its highest level since September 18, 2018, quoting close to its 52-week high of Rs 226 hit on April 27, 2018 in intra-day deal.

Last week, DLF had successfully raised Rs 3,173 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP). Investors like Oppenheimer Global Fund, Society Generale, BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley France, Copthall Mauritius Investment and Stichting Depositary APG Emerging Markets allotted the shares in the offer.

Analysts at HDFC Securities have ‘buy’ rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 264 per share.

“While the National devco projects are now portraying an uptick in volumes, DLF hopes for a similar turnaround in its ‘Rest of Gurgaon’ projects (inventory of around Rs 3,650 crore), which are still reeling under pressure from inventory oversupply. With Phase V inventory gradually diminishing (around Rs 5,750 crore), DLF is planning for new launches there,” the brokerage firm said in Q3FY19 results review.

Meanwhile, a panel of economists, including former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Virmani, on Tuesday called for at least 0.25 percentage point rate cut in the RBI's first monetary policy of the current fiscal to be unveiled later this week, the PTI report suggested.