ITC smokes up a new high

ITC hit a new 52-week high today at Rs.307 and remains around the same high levels, contributing to the record breaking run of the indices. In fact its contribution to the Sensex is currently around 158 points. Over 19 lakh shares have changed hands in the morning session alone.

There is great excitement over the company’s performance for Q1FY19. Beating all estimates, it net profit rose 10% (YoY) at Rs.2,819 crore on a 8% jump in revenue at Rs.10,707 crore.

EBITDA came in at Rs.4203 crore, up 12% while margins improved from 37.6% to 39.3%.

This jump in net profit was despite the 20% tax burden post GST regime. Its pre-tax profit (PBT) from cigarettes was up 9%, contributing 83% to total pre-tax profit of ITC. Its FMCG business PBT was up 86% on the back of enhanced scale, product mix enrichment and cost management initiatives”.

PBT from hotel business rose 2.5 times to Rs.13 crore on account of higher room rates and strong food and beverage sales. The company, which is building four hotel properties, opened its new hotel in Hyderabad last quarter.

The paper, paperboards and packaging segment showed a 15% jump in PBT though commodities trading business took a hot on account of pressure on legal cigarette volumes and lower export incentives – PBT was down 17%.