BSE FMCG Loses; Other Sectoral Indices Surge Up To 9% In April

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount Shoes

Related Articles

BSE to exclude 10 firms from its IPO IndexBSE to take 15% stake in group co USEBombay Stock Exchange Q1 profit at Rs 57.27 crSun Pharma recovers lost ground on bourses

New Delhi, April 30: Increased competition and poor annual results have dampened fast-moving consumer goods stocks during an otherwise buoyant result season of April. The BSE FMCG index has been the only one to close in red among all sectoral indices on The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) during the month.

This is in contrast to a 2-9 per cent jump in all other sectoral indices and 2-3 per cent gains in the broader based BSE-100, BSE-200 and BSE-500 indices in April. The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex has also gained 1.15 per cent during the month.

BSE FMCG index has also been the second largest loser during the first four months of the current calender year after BSE Consumer Durables index, diving 16 per cent during the period. The latter, however, has been able to gain some of the lost ground during April. Weakness in the BSE FMCG index is led by index heavy-weight Hindustan Lever (HLL), which witnessed the steepest fall in net profits (23 per cent) in the past five years during the quarter ended March 2004. The stock has plummeted 8.4 per cent during the first month of the fiscal 2005 and a whopping 31 per cent during the calender so far. The stock has been among the top five losers in the list of 50 shares that constitutes NSE benchmark Nifty during the calender.

The other major losers among FMCG counters during the month include heavyweights like Britannia Industries and Colgate Palmolive. The duo have tanked 13 per cent and 20 per cent respectively during the first four months of the current calender year. Price wars between Proctor & Gamble and HLL has taken a heavy toll on the margins of these FMCG giants resulting in a sharp fall in their net profits.

However, fiscal 2005, has started on a positive note of all other sectoral indices. After a damp first three months, BSE’s Healthcare index emerged as the top gainer in April among all the sectoral indices on the