Softening rural consumption and the likelihood of weak corporate earnings in the March quarter saw investors dump stocks.
Despite near-term headwinds of rising input costs and the possibility of lower demand for products as Covid dented rural & urban India, and impacts both production & consumption, analysts remain bullish on stocks of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and expect the index to relatively outperform its peers in the second half of fiscal 2021-22 (FY22). In the past one year, prices of key commodities such as groundnut oil, mustard oil, Vanaspati, soya oil, sunflower oil and palm oil have shot up in the range of 20 per cent to 60 per cent, data show. The FMCG sector macros in this backdrop, according to analysts, have further deteriorated because of weakness in consumer demand and likely margin pressure due to elevated crude oil, palm oil and global food prices.
HUL, ITC, Nestle, Colgate, Dabur, Britannia, Asian Paints, P&G are trading at nearly 48 times. The previous record high was 53 times at the end of March 1994.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
However, the government's draft policy on e-commerce companies has forced consumer companies to also adapt to the changes. For Dabur India, e-commerce channel continues to be a key driver of growth in urban India. The contribution of online sales to its entire portfolio is at six per cent compared to 1.5 per cent before the pandemic.
Maggie Amritraj, mother of former Indian Davis Cup players Vijay Amritraj and Anand Amritraj, passed away in Chennai on Saturday after prolonged illness.
'We need to encourage the next generation of farmers to continue in farming'
With a revival in demand and consumption, FMCG companies are looking forward to 2022 with positivity and hopes of sustaining a healthy growth trend across both rural and urban markets while gearing up to cater to the ever-increasing digitally active consumers and tackle the challenge of higher commodity prices. Health and wellness and convenience are going to remain key trends and FMCG companies are strengthening their core brands, driving premiumisation across their portfolios with targeted innovations as consumers are gravitating towards trusted brands looking for quality, purity and hygiene, in continuation of the trend that started since the pandemic last year. FMCG makers are accelerating digitalisation and are investing in building capability in e-commerce and Direct-to-Consumer channels, identifying it as a key vector of their growth as the threat of a possible third wave is still not away.
The country's top FMCG stocks, such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Nestl, Britannia, Godrej Consumer Products, and Dabur, among others, are currently trading at around 41x their trailing 12-month earnings, down from their peak P/E multiple of around 48x at the end of December 2018.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The company expects Bournvita Crunchy to strengthen its presence in the cookie segment.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your stockmarket queries.
Xherdan Shaqiri inspired StokeCity to a convincing 2-0 victory over Premier League leaders ManchesterCity in blustery conditions at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.
'Gerson existed at the intersection of principle and conscience. 'One of our conversations turned to his return to India from Brazil. 'He spoke about the choices he made and the things he felt he had failed at. 'What emerged was how he always steadfastly stuck to his beliefs and was true to them and himself. 'The need to -- in Spike Lee's words -- Do The Right Thing.' Director Dev Benegal remembers Gerson da Cunha, 'friend, guide, light'.
In India, Danone holds a 25.5 per cent stake in market leader Britannia Industries through holding company Associated Biscuits International Holdings.
The move will result in Britannia and Wadia BSN, being dismantled.
French firm in talks with Wadias over future relationship.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The warring promoters of FMCG major Britannia - the Wadias and the French dairy giant Danone - are looking at sorting out intellectual property rights issues
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
FIIs have offloaded shares of Bajaj Corp, Nestle, Jyothy Laboratories and Britannia.
Arvind Kejriwal's road show in Britannia chowk area of Chandni Chowk constituency, nine days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, drew enthusiastic crowd which had gathered to catch a glimpse of the Aam Aadmi Party chief.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
More than the revenue component, the movies gain hugely in terms of visibility and reach, reports T E Narasimhan.
FSSAI to remove potassium bromate from food additives list
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
If there is a morality tale here, it is that debt and death spare no king.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
In terms of stock selection, India continues to benefit from two phenomena - the big getting bigger and availability of quality stocks in relative abundance compared with its Asian peers.
Ajit Mishra answers reader queries on the stock market.
Of the 16 FMCG firms, 12 companies saw an increase in their respective foreign institutional investors holding in three months ended September 2013 over the year-ago period, while the remaining four witnessed a decline in FIIs stake, according to a report by A C Choksi Share Brokers.
The Delhi high court dismissed an interim application seeking to restrain Britannia Industries from using the logo, mark and mascot of the 2003 World Cup in its promotional campaigns.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
In the past month, wheat prices have increased 6.3% as production is expected to be 1.5% lower, in terms of crop acreage, than the earlier estimate
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers readers' queries on stocks they own or want to buy. Here are his replies to some of the 'buy, sell, hold, avoid or exit?' e-mails that we have received.
The slowdown had been brewing since 2016 but was intensified further by several disruptions in the past two years including demonetisation.
Indian companies had invested $7.34 billion.
Among Sensex constituents, HCL Tech suffered the most by diving 2.26 per cent, followed by HDFC shedding 2.10 per cent.
