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IRCON, RVNL, IRFC or RailTel — Which railway stock has the highest retail shareholding?Over the last one month, shares of IRFC have seen gains of 16%, while those of RVNL have surged 21%. Shares of IRCON and RailTel, the top gainers on Wednesday, have gained up to 40% each over the last one month.By Hormaz Fatakia   June 4, 2025, 4:11:00 PM IST (Published)4 Min ReadShares of India's state-run railway companies, IRCON International, RailTel Corp, Rail Vikas Nigam, RITES and IRFC gained as much as 13% on Wednesday, continuing their upmove seen over the last one month.

IRCON and RailTel were the top gainers on the Nifty 500 index, seeing gains of 13% and 11% respectively.

Shares of RVNL, RITES and IRFC also gained between 3% to 7% on Wednesday.

Over the last one month, shares of IRFC have seen gains of 16%, while those of RVNL have surged 21%. Shares of IRCON and RailTel, the top gainers on Wednesday, have gained up to 40% each over the last one month. RITES, which won an order on Tuesday, has also seen its stock rise 30% in the last one month.

Despite this upmove, most of these railway stocks are still below their record high levels.

StockOne-Month ReturnsDown From PeakIRFC16%-37%RVNL22%-34%RailTel39%-28%IRCON39%-37%RITES30%-26%

However, retail investors have continued to place their bets on these railway stocks, even after they corrected from their record high levels. Lets take a look at how has the retail shareholding changed in these companies over the last 12 months.

IRFC

One among those PSUs which does not have enough float in the market as the government continues to hold a 86% stake. Yet, the company has nearly 56 lakh retail shareholders, or those with authorised share capital of up to ₹2 lakh. These shareholders have a 9.7% stake in the company. As of March 2024, the company had 44 lakh retail shareholders with a 9.4% stake in the company.

IRCON

IRCON has seen a significant increase in retail shareholding during the last 12 months. The state-run company had 9.15 lakh retail shareholders with a 24% stake at the end of the March 2024 quarter. A year later, IRCON has over 12 lakh retail shareholders, with close to 26% stake in the company.

RVNL

RVNL was among the biggest outperformers within the railway basket when these stocks had hit record highs in mid-2024. At the end of March 2024, RVNL had 18.2 lakh retail shareholders with a 15.1% stake in the company, 12 months later, although the number of retail shareholders has increased to 23.45 lakh, the percentage has come down to 14%.

RailTel

Another railway stock where retail shareholders have continued to place their bets, the number of retail shareholders has increased from 3.68 lakh to 5.28 lakh over the last 12 months, while in percentage terms, that number has increased from 16% to 20%.

RITES

RITES has also seen an increase in retail shareholding through the year gone by, even as the stock has corrected from its all-time high levels. Current retail shareholding stands at 4.02 lakh shareholders with a 12.39% stake, much higher than the 2.28 lakh shareholders with a 8.28% stake last year.

StockRetail In March 2024Retail In March 2025IRFC44 Lakh56 LakhRVNL18.2 Lakh23.45 LakhRailTel3.68 Lakh5.28 LakhIRCON9.15 Lakh12 LakhRITES2.28 Lakh4.02 Lakh

Another common factor among these railway companies is the lack of mutual fund holdings in them. Barring RITES and RailTel, where Mutual Fund holding is between 2% and 3%, most of the other companies have negligible exposure.

"The tailwind that Texmaco Rail probably carries three years back, I think it was a story where the balancesheet was probably struggling in terms of execution, in terms of topline growth in terms of margins. They have probably turned that around in the last three years. The expectations of more orders coming their way, more wagons expected to come their way as well, along with the maintenance contracts related to all these orders that they probably expected and have won so far, probably gives them that leverage in terms of more consistency in terms of revenue flows and margin delivery as well, which might probably then mean that out of the entire pack, maybe the consistency in numbers that one seeks for - RVNL and RailTel," Mayuresh Joshi of Marketsmith India told CNBC-TV18 on Wednesday.Continue ReadingCheck out our in-depth Market Coverage, Business News & get real-time Stock Market Updates on CNBC-TV18. Also, Watch our channels CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar Live on-the-go!TagsIRFC share priceRailTel CorporationRailway stocksRITESRVNL share priceshare market today