Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to step up efforts to boost consumption and rural economy while keeping inflation under check when she presents her sixth straight Budget on February 1. Experts said one way to boost consumption is to put more money in the hands of people, and one of the possible ways of doing it is by reducing the tax burden through tinkering with tax slabs or increasing the standard deduction. Another proposal is related to increasing the funds under the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA and higher payout for farmers.
In the last two years, a clutch of home-grown fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies sought growth by acquiring companies overseas.
A hotel in 1975, entry into paperboards in 1979, India's dominant cigarette maker, ITC, read the tea - or tobacco - leaves early, leveraged its enterprise strengths and stepped up the diversification agenda to create multiple drivers of growth. Some failed, some faltered, some were transformational, adding steadily to the top line. Now those efforts are making a difference: margins from non-cigarettes - FMCG, hotels, agri, paperboards, paper and packaging - are expanding and profits are kicking in more significantly than ever before.
Dabur has launched 44 products during the year.
The first 10 months of this calendar year saw the launch of 251 new products (223 variants and 28 brands) against 191 (173 variants and 18 brands) in the same period last year, according to a study by research firm IMRB.
Softening rural consumption and the likelihood of weak corporate earnings in the March quarter saw investors dump stocks.
While the four largest listed paint companies have seen marginal negative returns, the S&P BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and the National Stock Exchange Nifty FMCG indices have delivered a solid 16 per cent return during the same period. Initially, volume growth and reduced costs bolstered the sector's sentiment, but brokerages have grown cautious due to increased competitive pressures.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd on Friday reported a 1.08 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,508 crore in the third quarter ended December 2023. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,481 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue from sales of products was marginally down to Rs 15,259 crore during the quarter.
BSE market breadth was marginally negative. Out of 3,094 stocks traded, 1,541 declined while 1,429 advanced.
The FMCG sector's demand growth will be powered by effective reduction in the personal taxes and increased allocation under NREGA, though hike in excise duty lead inflation is a cause for concern
While India Inc seems to be generally pleased with the budget, there are, however, some discordant voices with the shipping, FMCG and education sectors saying there is nothing in the budget for them.
The stock of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) fell about 3.7 per cent in trade after its Q3FY24 earnings disappointed brokerages and led to downgrades. Further, the stock, after a 15 per cent run-up over the past month prior to Monday's correction, had already factored in the upside from the business front. Its peer in the consumer space, Marico, too, saw a 4 per cent drop in its stock price.
In an ad that is currently on air, business news channel Bloomberg UTV takes a dig at a rival channel. The ad shows Bloomberg UTV's anchor simplifying the business terms used by the anchor of a rival channel, who seems to be at great discomfort.
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.
Among index funds, the most popular products are funds tracking the Nifty 50 and Sensex, says Dwaipayan Bose, and explains the finer points of selecting the right index mutual fund.
Indian consumers' spending on FMCG items at modern retail stores is set to nearly triple to $5 billion by 2015 from $1.8 billion at present, according to market research firm, the Nielsen Company.
'We went from zero to about 10 million users in three months. Paytm came out with the wallet play and we came out with the UPI play.'
ITC Ltd on Friday reported a 23.09 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,070.09 crore for the third quarter ended December 2022, helped by growth momentum across its operating segments. The diversified company had posted a net profit of Rs 4,118.80 crore during the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal, ITC said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue from operations was up 3.56 per cent to Rs 19,020.65 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 18,365.80 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The issue of pollution caused due to the non-degradable material is keeping consumer goods majors - from ITC and Dabur to Nestl and PepsiCo - on their toes.
While stable raw materials prices have spelt relief for most FMCG companies, they are still having a tough time in defining the future pricing strategy. Most have indicated that input costs have hit their margins, while others maintained that if inflation continued unabated, there would be a further correction in prices. Many FMCG companies have either raised prices or reduced the size of their products to combat the rise in farm commodity prices and packaging costs.
From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Titan, UltraTech Cement, ITC, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the major gainers. Tata Steel, Axis Bank, NTPC, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank were the major laggards.
From the Sensex pack, NTPC jumped nearly 4 per cent after the company posted over 23 per cent rise in consolidated net profit in the April-June quarter of 2023-24. Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Maruti and JSW Steel were among the other major gainers.
'In the next one-and-a-half, two months you'll get decent amount of opportunities in the mid-cap and small-cap sector at lower levels.'
Kotak Mahindra Bank was the biggest loser from the Sensex pack, skidding 1.83 per cent, followed by Axis Bank, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank and Nestle. In contrast, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan, Infosys, HDFC Bank, HDFC and ITC were the gainers.
Citing the continuing 'cyclical turnaround' in the economy and the 'positives' in Union Budget for 2003-04, mutual fund Franklin Templeton has said the FMCG segment was in for better times.
Sensex rises, Nifty holds 8,900; FMCG, Pharma shares lead.
Sales of refrigerators were higher this year versus last year.
Of the 30-share Sensex, 13 ended higher, while 17 led by Power Grid, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's, M&M, GAIL, Infosys and L&T finished lower, fell by up to 2.40 per cent
The new push is being driven primarily by over 170,000 villages where household income is over Rs 1 lakh a year.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn over Rs 12,000 crore from Indian equities this month so far, mainly due to a sustained rise in US bond yields and the uncertain environment resulting from the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, the story takes an intriguing turn on observing FPI activity in Indian debt as they have infused over Rs 5,700 crore into the debt market during the period under review, data with the depositories showed. Going ahead, the trajectory of FPIs' investments in India will be influenced not only by global inflation and interest rate dynamics but also by the developments and intensity of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar Investment Adviser India, said.
Top losers include Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, SBI, Infosys, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Bajaj Auto and IndusInd Bank, falling up to 2.63 per cent.
Domestic equity markets, which are at record high levels, will be driven by quarterly earnings, global trends and foreign fund movement, analysts said. The movement of rupee and global oil benchmark Brent crude will also be tracked by investors. "The direction of global stock markets, fluctuations in the rupee-to-dollar exchange rate, and movement in crude oil prices will all play a crucial role in influencing the overall market trend.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty buckled under selling pressure after a nine-session rally on Monday, as massive sell-off in IT, tech and telecom counters unnerved investors.
Nirma's tryst with the pharmaceutical space started in 2006 when it acquired the ailing Core Healthcare in a deal reported to be worth Rs 300 crore. The Ahmedabad-based manufacturer of intravenous fluids was subsequently renamed Nirlife. Pharma industry insiders say Nirma, which broke open the detergent market in the 1990s with low prices and massive advertising, tried an encore of the low-price strategy in pharma, but with mixed results.
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