By earn 
FMCG companies move fast on volume growth while rural beats urban
Volume growth seems to be the latest mantra in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. This coincides with rural outpacing urban consumption in volume terms for the first time in five quarters, according to the NielsenIQ January-March data. While focussed on volume, FMCG companies are also looking at increasing advertising spends in order to grow their brands. Consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) told its investors post its earnings call recently that its focus remains on driving competitive volume-led growth across its businesses. “We want to continue driving gross margin improvement. Even in this quarter, when we delivered a 23.4 per cent EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), you saw a very strong 350 bps gross margin improvement. A large part of that got invested into advertising & promotion spends (A&P),” Ritesh Tiwari, chief financial officer at HUL, said.
In FY23, investments in mining, construction and manufacturing fell
Gross capital formation (GCF) — or investment — in manufacturing, construction, and mining sectors contracted in FY23 primarily due to a fall in export demand and low private consumption during the year, an industrywise analysis of the National Accounts Statistics 2024 data showed. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) had released the data on Monday. The fall in GCF in the three sectors comes at a time when overall GCF in the economy grew by 6.9 per cent to Rs 55.3 trillion at constant prices in the financial year ended March 31, 2023 (FY23). GCF is a broad measure of investment in an economy and represents total value of physical assets including fixed assets, inventories and valuables. On the other hand, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) is a narrow measure of investment in the economy and excludes inventories, or acquisitions of valuables. Real manufacturing GFC that contracted 5.4 per cent to Rs 9.4 trillion could be attributed to “subdued manufacturing growth” during the year as capacity utilisation was low and firms had less incentive to invest, said economists.
- Global market action*
Dow Jones – Down by 0.12% or 45.81 points
FTSE – Up by 1.22% or 100.18 points
CAC – Up by 0.99% or 79.04 points
DAX – Up by 1.40% or 254.84 points
Gift Nifty – Up by 0.01% or 2.50 points
FII/DII activities
FII – Sold 3668.84Cr worth of shares
DII – Bought 2304.50Cr worth of shares.
Stocks with high delivery Percentage
KPR Mills – 93.4%
ESAB India – 92%
SKP India – 90%
Timken India – 89.9%
RHI Magnesite India – 89.2%
Primary market activities
TBO Tek Ltd (Main board) – Issue size 1550.81Cr
Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd (Main board) – Issue size 3000Cr
TGIF Agribusiness Ltd (BSE SME) – Issue size 6.39Cr
Listing today
Storage Technologies and Automation Ltd (BSE SME) – Subscribed 278.82x
Amkay Products Ltd (BSE SME) – Subscribed 748.03x
Sai Swami Metals & Alloys Ltd (BSE SME) – Subscribed 543.72x
Commodities updates
Gold – Rs 73665/10gm, Silver – Rs 82831/kg, Brcrude – Rs 6576/barrel, Copper – Rs 864.05/kg.
Corporate News
Paytm’s UPI transactions fall for 3rd straight mth, market share contracts.
Axis Bank to bring in expats in latest move to woo global companies.
FY25 to be best year for Happiest Minds since IPO: Chairman Ashok Soota.
