Action construction shAre price mAy AppreciAte by 30% in nine months

mounted cranes, lorry loaders, backhoe loaders and loaders, vibratory rollers, forklifts, tractors and harvesters, and other construction equipment across the country. The company’s production facilities are located at industrial townships of Faridabad in Haryana and Kashipur in Uttarakhand. Their products are widely applicable in power projects, ports and shipyards, dams, metro rail, roads, mining, steel industry, engineering industry, railways, cement, petroleum, defence, warehousing, logistics and building construction. The Indian construction industry forms an integral part of the economy and is a conduit for a substantial part of development. It is poised for rapid growth on account of industrialisation, urbanisation, economic development and rising expectation for improved quality of living. Construction constitutes 40%-50% of India’s capital expenditure on projects in various sectors such as highways, roads, railways, energy, airports, irrigation, etc., and is the second largest industry in India after agriculture. It accounts for nearly 10% to 11% of the GDP. The need for boosting infrastructure investment is core for the economic development of the country and hence there have been many new initiatives by the present government to boost sectors like roads, railways, power distribution and rural and urban development. No wonder that the Union Budget has allocated a record Rs 3.96 lakh crore for infrastructure investment during the current financial year. The country needs rapid demand and stronger construction activity, which has not yet happened. However, the long term prospects of the industry are huge and a fan- tastic opportunity area for economic development. The entire construction industry is going through a phase of consolidation and needs to overcome financial situations and challenges related to debt. There are green shoots in the infrastructure sector like development in highways, waterways, energy distribution, which offers various opportunities for the company. Growth is back and government financed infrastructure, especially in highways, has started, with restrictive regulations being removed. With sentiments improving Action Construction expects to see improvement in the infrastructure development sectors. The Action Construction Equipment stock, presently trading at Rs 53, is an excellent buy with negligible downside. Analysts expect the share price to appreciate by 30% in nine months on the back of an increase in revenue and better profit margins. Rajiv Kapoor is a share broker, CErtIfiED MutuAL FuND ExPErt AND MDRT INsurANCE AGENt. Despite the speedy work being done by the government to bring in the GST as early as possible, there are several doubts around GST keeping its latest (implementation) deadline of July 2017, after missing several in the past eight years. However, there are many who feel sure about the GST coming into force latest by September this year which they argue is the constitutionally-set outer limit beyond which its implementation cannot be further delayed. If it breaches that limit, the government would have to visit the Parliament again which usually is a timeconsuming process. “But the probability of that happening looks remote to me,” says Pratik Jain, KPMG’s expert on indirect taxation. Delay, of course, has happened because reform of GST’s nature required both the Centre and the state governments to reach a common ground