Railway stocks chug along

Tomorrow is the Railway Budget and the rail stocks were all down in the red when they opened but now, some are slowly trailing into the green, up less than 1% in most. Kalindee Rail, Titagarh Wagons, BEML. Siemens is down over 2% while Allcargo Logistics is up over 2%. Stone India is up over 1%.

This is just traders taking position in the stocks. The Railway Budget is overall expected to be a mild affair with no big ticket spends expected. The fledgling sector will not get much financial help from the Finance Ministry which itself has to work out how it is going to garner funds for the 23% pay hike announced in the Seventh Pay Commission.

Clearly, Suresh Prabhu will have to depend on external budget sources for funding any railway project. No new train announcements are expected though a scheme for premium high-speed parcel trains is very much on the cards.