BENGALURU (Reuters) – Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and other companies that supplied equipment and materials for India’s mission to the moon jumped on Wednesday, hours before the country attempts to land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole.
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will attempt to land on the lunar south pole at 6:04 p.m. IST (1234 GMT) on Wednesday, in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and the country’s standing as a space power.
The mission has received heightened attention after Russia’s Luna-25 mission failed less than a week earlier.
Industrial conglomerate L&T, which manufactured some segments of the booster that launched the spacecraft, ended 1.5% on the day.
India’s space center in Sriharikota also uses L&T’s tracking radar used to monitor launch vehicles.
Alloy maker Mishra Dhatu Nigam, which supplied cobalt and nickel base alloys for the launch vehicle, jumped 3.4%, while Indo National, which supplied four electronics components for the launch vehicle, jumped 5%.
Precision engineering firm MTAR Technologies, which counts ISRO among its clients, jumped nearly 5%, while Paras Defence and Space Technologies added 5.4%.
Industrial gas firm Linde India climbed 3.2% and is up nearly 19% so far this week, while Centum Electronics, which supplied modules for the mission, surged 14.2%.
(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
