| FMCG scrips on a roll, outperform Sensex | |
| Deepak Korgaonkar / Mumbai July 5, 2009, 0:13 IST | |
The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector was in the limelight during the week ended July 3 with most of the frontline FMCG stocks—Hindustan Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Dabur India, Nestle and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare—moving up by 3-8 per cent and trading at 52-week highs.
The surge led the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) FMCG Index to closed at its 52-week high of 2,290.22 on Friday. A consistently healthy double-digit growth reported by the FMCG sector in the last couple of years helped the sector to outperform the Sensex.
The FMCG Index gained one per cent in the last one month compared to one per cent fall in the Sensex. Seven FMCG companies have posted a 10 per cent growth in net profit and over 15 per cent growth in net sales in the last two years.
Hindustan Unilever closed at its three-year high of Rs 273.20, gaining 3 per cent in the week against the previous week’s close of Rs 265.35 on BSE. The company has posted a sales growth of 18 per cent in 2008-09.
The company has launched a relentless drive to reduce working capital and capital expenditure without cutting back on innovation and growth-yielding expenditure. It has also adopted a continuous monthly planning cycle and scrapped its earlier system of annual plans to counter high volatility in input costs.
Colgate-Palmolive was the largest gainer during the week by appreciating 8 per cent to Rs 619.75 (Rs 574.20), followed by Dabur India by 7.5 per cent to Rs 130.15 (Rs 121.05), Godrej Industries by 6.5 per cent to Rs 144.80 (Rs 136) and Nestle India by 6 per cent to Rs 1,975.40 (Rs 1,869). Trading volumes on counters such as Colgate-Palmolive, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare and Marico have more than doubled during the week.
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