Chemicals company Atul Ltd posted a net profit of Rs 102.05 crore for the April-June quarter of FY24 on July 21, posting a decline of 37.6 percent from Rs 163.47 crore clocked in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Revenue also declined 20 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,182.02 crore, down from Rs 1,476.85 crore in the year-ago period.
Despite the decline, both topline as well as bottomline topped CNBC-TV18's estimates of Rs 1,141 crore and Rs 84 crore, respectively.
Weakness in demand across key segments like polymers, aromatics and colours along with double digit price erosion across segments weighed on the company's topline.
Moreover, sluggish global demand, consequent lower prices, weak product mix and negative operating leverage despite moderation in input prices also put pressure on the company's operating metrics. As a result, its EBITDA margin eroded sharply to 15.4 percent in April-June from 18.2 percent in the same period last fiscal.
Similar to the topline and bottomline, the EBITDA margin also surpassed CNBC-TV18's estimate of 12.6 percent.
Moreover, shares of the company also reacted sharply to the better-than-expected earnings. The stock recovered its early gains and shot up to an intraday high of Rs 7,049.90 post the result announcement. At 1.52 pm, shares of Atul Ltd were trading at Rs 7,013.15, with gains of 6.5 percent on the National Stock Exchange.
There was also a sharp spike in trading volumes as three lakh shares changed hands on the exchanges, significantly higher than the one-month daily traded average of 56,000 shares.
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