ITC tanks 13% as GST Council hikes cess on cigarettes. Should you sell?

Biggest intra-day fall in 25 years; Rs 50,000 cr goes up in smoke

Shares of India’s largest cigarette maker, ITC, plunged nearly 13 per cent on Tuesday, its single biggest intra-day fall since May 12, 1992, after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Monday increased cess on cigarettes. The stock had plunged 15 per cent in intra-day deals on Tuesday — the sharpest fall in a decade — to hit a low of Rs 276.4 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Stock prices of other cigarette makers Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries, too, fell 6-8 per cent because of the hike, which came after market hours on Monday. While investors