Shares of Siemens rallied 8 per cent to Rs 1,472 on the BSE in the early morning trade on Thursday even after the company reported a 4.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 330 crore for the September quarter mainly on higher expenses due to lockdown.

The company said the profit was impacted due to expenses incurred during the lockdown period amounting to Rs 285 crore. Revenue from continuing operations fell 9.2 per cent to Rs 3,422 crore over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin, however, improved 180 basis points (bps) YoY to 12.9 per cent, largely led by a 210bp YoY expansion in gross margins.

The company follows October-September financial year. The board recommended a dividend payment of Rs 7 per equity share of Rs 2 each.

Siemens said it has a strong order backlog of over one year’s revenue, partially on account of the period of lockdown in the country, which resulted in reduced revenues. The company’s new orders grew by 8.7 per cent YoY at Rs 3,220 crore during the quarter, it said.

“A major part of the financial year 2020 was impacted on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, despite the volatility in the business environment with core industrial sectors being negatively impacted, there are now initial signs of an uptick across some market segments post lockdown,” MD&CEO Sunil Mathur said.

The company sees increased interest in its technological and digitalisation solutions across all businesses and is working closely with customers in these areas to support them by adopting the latest technologies, solutions, and services, Mathur said.