Footwear shares extend rally; Liberty Shoes, Campus Activewear at new highs

Shares of footwear companies continued their upward march with Liberty Shoes and Campus Activewear hitting new highs on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade owing to healthy business outlook.

Besides these two stocks, Khadim India, Bata India, Relaxo Footwears and Metro Brands too rallied up to 10 per cent each in intra-day trade today. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.46 per cent at 57,407 at 09:30 AM.

The footwear sector is undergoing a transformative phase wherein addition to design and comfort features on aspects related to functionality are also gaining prominence in the mind of the consumer. The World Footwear market size is currently around $ 224.6 billion and is expected to grow at a handsome rate of 4 per cent. India is the 2nd largest footwear manufacturer in the world behind China.

Rising discretionary income, improvement in living standards, increased brand consciousness; growing work force has resulted in shift from the unorganized sector to the organized sector market in India. The demand for high fashion products is pushing revenues, higher trade volumes and increased employment avenues.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said India’s footwear sector has immense potential, and it can increase production and exports 10 times in the near future.

Among individual stocks, Liberty Shoes hit a new high at Rs 402.20, on ralliying 10 per cent today. In the past one month, the stock price of the company has zoomed 120 per cent, as compared to 4.6 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

On September 24, the company said that it was confident of achieving pre-Covid numbers in terms of revenue and profitability. Going ahead, the company aims to grow by 30 per cent in the year 2022-23 and is confident enough to achieve the highest-ever top line and Profit before tax (PBT) in the year 2022-23, with PST margin of over 5 per cent to correspond with the industry benchmark in near future.

Campus Activewear too hit a new high at Rs 617.95, surging 5 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade so far. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 617.10, touched on September 23, 2022. With today’s rally the stock has zoomed 112 per cent from its issue price of Rs 292 per share.