Chandrayaan-3 Creates Huge Stock Rally
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
While India's frugal Chandrayaan-3 spent just Rs 615 crore, market investors are generously pouring thousands of crores of rupees in almost all stocks that have something to do with aerospace. In the first four trading days of last week, the combined market capitalisation of a group of 13 space-related stocks has skyrocketed by over Rs 30,700 crore.
Shares of the little-known smallcap company Centum Electronics, which supplied critical modules and systems to ISRO for Chandrayaan-3, have zoomed 26% in the week. Avantel, Linde India, Paras Defence and Bharat Heavy Electricals stocks also saw impressive double-digit upsides this week.
Shares of conglomerate Godrej Industries rallied over 8% as investors presumed that Godrej Aerospace, which supplied critical components to ISRO, is its subsidiary.
Companies that played a role in Chandrayaan-3
The list of companies that played a role in making India the first nation to land on the unexplored south pole of the moon is long.
While Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was involved in the moon mission starting from manufacturing of subsystems to mission tracking
PTC Industries supplied pump interstage housing, and MTAR was involved in supplying equipment such as Vikas engines, and cryogenic engine subsystems including turbo pump and booster pump. Paras supplied the navigation system for Chandrayaan-3 while PSU BHEL supplied titanium tanks and batteries.
Paras Defence and Space Technologies: The company, which specialises in defence and space optics, defence electronics, heavy engineering, etc. supplied the navigation system for Chandrayaan-3.
Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL): The PSU company provided mechanical hardware for the moon mission.
Mishra Dhatu Nigam; Hyderabad-based PSU metal manufacturer supplied critical materials such as cobalt base alloys, nickel base alloys, titanium alloys and special steels for various components of the launch vehicle used in the lunar mission.
BHEL: PSU Bharat Heavy Electricals supplied titanium tanks and batteries for Chandrayaan-3.
Bharat Electronics: The company was said to be involved in manufacturing Chandrayaan-3's payloads.
Avantel: Hyderabad-based aerospace and defence company Avantel counts ISRO among its customers.
Godrej Industries: Godrej Group company Godrej Aerospace supplied critical components to ISRO. In the last three decades, the company has contributed to over 175 engines for the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) launches.
India’s share in global space market
India, which has a less than 5% market share in the $447 billion global space market, opened its space sector for private companies in 2023 with a HAL-L&T JV winning its first order worth Rs 860 crore to build five end-to-end polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) rockets.
“India is in the top 3 space-tech nations and has suppliers who have diversified businesses. In this context, EPC and manufacturing sectors can continue to benefit from competitive procurement by the government,” said Abhishek Banerjee of Lotusdew Wealth.
As far as investment in space stocks is concerned, analysts say it could be a multi-year mega trend and therefore investors must look at the bigger picture rather than chase momentum that can fizzle out in no time.
