Mahindra & Mahindra is seeing a smooth ride in positive territory on Wednesday, extending its previous session’s gains, with investors continuing to lap up the stock thanks to the higher than than expected net profit posted by the company in the January – March 2018 quarter.

The stock hit a new 52-week high of Rs 901 on the National Stock Exchange (Rs 900 on BSE) today and is currently traded at Rs 899, up 3.3% from its previous closing price.

On BSE, the M&M counter has clocked a volume of nearly 3.6 lakh shares in today’s session, more than twice the average daily volume of 1.61 lakh shares. On NSE, the counter has clocked a volume of nearly 7.6 million shares today.

On Tuesday afternoon, the company said that it posted standalone net profit of Rs 1155 crore for the quarter ended March 2018,, up by about 50% over its net profit in the year-ago quarter.

M&M’s revenue for the quarter was up 26% on year to Rs 13,189 crore. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by over 70%, compared to the same period last year, at Rs 1995 crore. The company’s EBITDA margin expanded by as much as 400 basis points on year to 15.1%.

The performance of the company’s automotive segment was quite robust in the fourth quarter, with revenue growing almost 20% on year to Rs 9104.85 crore and profit rising as much as 78% to Rs 971.33 crore.

Revenue from farm equipment segment grew 42% to Rs 3716.07 crore, giving it a profit increase of 55% at Rs 723.39 crore in the March quarter

In a statement, M&M said, “Economic activity is expected to gather pace as the transitory effects of implementation of the goods and services tax recede. This outlook will also be lifted by tailwinds from normal rainfall with the weather bureau forecasting a ‘normal’ monsoon for the third successive year in its first stage long range forecast.”

The company has also announced plans to invest a record Rs 15,000 crore over the next three years. Out of this, Rs 10,000 crore will be classified as capital expenditure for expanding capacity for its utility vehicles, tractors as well as commercial vehicles, in addition to product development, said the company’s MD, Goenka.

Goenka said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the automobile industry’s performance in 2018-19 on the back of a positive economic environment, stable inflation and interest rates, and expectations of a normal monsoon, though rising crude oil and commodity prices may play spoilsport.

He expects “the momentum of FY18 to continue into this fiscal” with tractors, passenger and commercial vehicles posting growth upwards of 10%.