Cyient shares jump 11% after profit rise in engineering business

Shares of Cyient rose about 11% in Friday morning trade after the engineering and technology services company reported higher profit in its main business, standing out on a day when most mid-sized stocks were being sold heavily.

The stock climbed about 10.9% to ₹1,268 on the National Stock Exchange in early trade, as investors reacted to the September-quarter results.

Profit after tax in Cyient’s digital, engineering and technology business, its core unit, rose 11.9% from a year earlier to ₹153 crore. The company also announced a dividend of 12%.

The gain came against a hostile backdrop. Within the first hour of trading, the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices were already down sharply, on the way to falls of about 2.5% and 3.5% for the session, and companies with disappointing numbers, such as Swiggy, were punished hard. Swiggy fell almost 10% in the same session.

That made Cyient one of the few results-day winners among mid-sized companies. Large information technology exporters such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were also in demand in the morning, as investors looked to technology services as a relative refuge from worries over oil prices and the West Asia conflict.

Good numbers were no guarantee of a reward on Friday, though. Microlender Creditaccess Grameen fell more than 4% in the afternoon despite results that were seen as healthy, with Brent crude near $114 a barrel and foreign investors still selling.