Ujjivan Financial stock hits 52-wk high; doubles in 6 months

Shares of Ujjivan Financial Services (UFSL) rallied over 10% to hit a fresh 52-week high on Wednesday, in an otherwise lackluster broader market, amid heavy volume. The stock has doubled investors’ money in the last six months, rising from its 52-week low of ₹96.10 on February 24, 2022, to ₹202.35 in intraday today. The stock breached its previous high of ₹191.80, touched on November 1, 2021, while it touched an all-time high of ₹547 on July 28, 2016.

On Wednesday, Ujjivan Financial's share price opened a tad higher for the second straight session at ₹183.95, against the previous closing price of ₹183.80 on the BSE. During the session so far, the stock of the non-banking finance company (NBFC) gained as much as 10.09% to touch a record high of ₹202.35 as trading volumes surged more than four times as compared to its two-week average trading volumes. A total of 2.24 lakh equity shares changed hands on the BSE till the time of reporting, as compared to the two-week average volume of 0.56 lakh stocks. The market capitalisation of the smallcap stock increased to ₹2,448.16 crore. In comparison, the BSE Sensex was trading flat at 59,028 levels, tracking weak cues from global peers.

Shares of Ujjivan Financial have given a return of 28% in the last one year. The stock has risen more than 52% in the calendar year 2022. The counter has delivered a stellar return of 29% in the past one month and over 9% in a week.

Technically, the stock turned ‘bullish’ from ‘mildly bullish’ on August 22, 2022, at ₹175.15, as per Markets Mojo, a share market research platform. Currently, the stock trades in bullish range, higher than its 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages.

The stock has gained momentum in the last one month after the NBFC reported robust earnings in the June quarter of the current financial year 2022-23 (Q1 FY23).

For the April-June quarter of 2022, Ujjivan Financial Services posted a net profit of ₹246.13 crore, as a loss of ₹82.69 crore in the year-ago period and a profit of ₹98.95 crores for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 (Q4 FY22). The total income increased to ₹1,056.68 crores during Q1 FY23, as compared to ₹736.08 crore in the corresponding period last year and ₹891.73 crores during the period ended March 31, 2022.

Headquartered in Bangalore, Ujjivan Financial Services is a NBFC that focuses on providing financial services to economically backward women in urban and semi-urban areas. In 2015, Ujjivan received an in-principle approval from the RBI to set up a small finance bank and floated its wholly owned subsidiary ‘Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Limited’, which commenced its operations on February 1, 2017.