Hll Slips To 52-Week Low

The Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) share slumped to an intra-day low of Rs 173.60 today on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), hitting a new 52-week low and ended at Rs 174.95, down by 4.03 per cent over worries of a deficient monsoon and stagnating growth.

The stock notched up a traded volume of over 8.22 lakh shares on BSE and 15.12 lakh shares on the National Stock Exchange.

Over the last five months, the scrip of the fast-moving consumer goods company fell 35 per cent from a 52-week high of Rs 266 on March 1 to today's 52-week low of Rs 173.60.

Besides monsoon worries and fears over a stagnating top line, the generally poor market sentiment has resulted in the dip in the share price, dealers said.

Analysts said the company's performance for the quarter ended June 30, 2002, was disappointing. For the immediate quarters, the company was hoping that the rains would play benevolent.

But this has not been the case so far. Moreover, the country's 70 per cent population lives in villages and survives on farm and agricultural output. If the monsoon turns out deficient, rural incomes fall resulting in lowered consumption and lower sales for the fast moving consumer goods maker.

HLL's 50 per cent revenues are generated from the rural segment. Meanwhile, HLL's results have proved weighty on the stock, too. The market was expecting some recovery in the second quarter, but the 9 per cent fall in top line has proved that the declining trend from the first quarter is continuing. Analysts said things look far from optimistic for HLL and they could worsen in the coming quarters.

For the second quarter ended June 30, 2002, HLL posted a 4.12 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 447.34 crore compared with Rs 466.59 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Net sales decreased by 8.9 per cent to Rs 2,671.57 crore.

However, the company's exceptional income has decreased to Rs 46.87 crore (Rs 119.86 crore). The market had expected a 11.9 per cent rise in net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2002. HLL was expected to register a 3 per cent fall in net sales.