Future Consumer locked in 10% upper circuit for third straight session

After plunging nearly 50 per cent in February, the company assured that the price movement is not inherent to FCL's fundamentals.

Shares of Future Consumer Products (FCL) were locked in the upper circuit of 10 per cent for the third straight day at Rs 16.50 on the BSE on Thursday after the company said there is no material impact of coronavirus on its business.

The stock of the Future Group company, engaged in packaged foods, has rallied 38 per cent from its an over four-year low price of Rs 12 touched on Monday, March 2, 2020 in the intra-day trade. 

Till 11:53 am, a combined 2.61 million shares have changed hands on the counter and there are pending buy orders for 309,997 shares on the NSE and BSE, exchange data shows.

In the month of February, the market price of FCL almost halved from the level of Rs 23.95 hit on January 31, 2020. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex declined only 6 per cent during the period.

"The current pressure on FCL’s stock price is unfounded and is not inherent to FCL’s fundamentals," the company said on February 29 after a sharp decline in the stock price. READ STATEMENT HERE

“We, the entire team of FCL, would take this opportunity to firmly assure our stakeholders that fundamentally it is business as usual and there are no pressures or any invocation of FCL‘s pledge shares. Any rumors on the fundamentals of the Company are totally baseless and false. The Company continues to build its position from strength to strength,” it added.

FCL further said its portfolio of brands continues to grow across distribution channels with focus on premiumization and mix optimization. FCL stays committed to build up new trends, new categories and new ideas that are going to shape the consumption in the years ahead, it added.

In view of the demand slowdown and lower earnings growth during the quarter ended December 2019, analysts at Antique Stock Broking cut its sales and EBITDA forecast for FY20e and FY21e by 14 per cent/13 per cent and 24 per cent/23 per cent, respectively.

“The recurring profit after tax declined to loss of Rs 5.19 crore due to higher tax which included one-time deferred tax reversal. Share of loss in Associate and joint ventures (JVs) and MI increased due to production delays on Hains and Fonterra. The management has guided for reduction in losses from associates and JVs in coming quarters”, the brokerage firm said result review.