Asian Paints is the talk of the town today. It has been trading in the green for the past 5 sessions, in anticipation of its Q4FY20 and now that the numbers are out, it remains in the green. Today, it rose over 7.5% to hit an intraday high at Rs.1813.10. It is currently trading at Rs.1780 levels.

The last few days of March when the lockdown was imposed is what brought down the earnings which otherwise was doing pretty well.

Consolidated revenue from operations fell 7% (YoY) to Rs.4635 crore and net profit came in at Rs.462 crore, down 2%.

EBITDA was down 3% at Rs.860 crore but margins rose to 18.6%, up 80 bps. This was mainly on account of the drop in raw material (a crude oil derivative) by 9.5% and lower employee benefit expenses. Tax expense was down 13%.

In terms of segment, Paint segment showed a 0.5% rise in EBIT at Rs.807 crore while the Home Improvement segment’s loss rose to Rs.22 crore, up from Rs.14 crore.