Jewellery stocks bedazzle Dalal Street

Jewellery stocks are surely dazzling Dalal Street today morning. The top two gainers are Titan, which went up 15% to hit a new high at Rs.524, the highest level since October 2008. PC Jeweller is the second top gainer, up 7% at Rs.538. TBZ is another big gainer, up almost 7.5% at Rs.99.80, very close to its 52-week high of Rs.102.25. Gitanjali Gems is up over 5% at Rs.72 levels; Thangamayil went up over 6% to Rs.264; Tara Jewels which has been hitting new lows for past two sessions, is up over 4.5% at Rs.29.85.

This sector has finally heaved a collective sigh of relief. The Govt had announced GST rates for almost all but gold/jewellery was still kept in abeyance. The industry had widely expected the rates to go up and the consensus was at 5%. But yesterday, the Govt announced a 3% GST – this is 1% more than the current tax outgo of 2% but the hike is bearable and is not expected to affect demand.

Foreign fund, CLSA has turned bullish on this sector and upgraded its Titan stock to “Buy” from “outperform” and raised target price from Rs.555 to Rs.620.