SRF slips over 4% as rise in Q3 net profit fails to cheer investors

NEW DELHI – Shares of declined along with benchmark indices on Thursday, with the stock shedding around 4.5 per cent in early trade as a 56 per cent increase in the chemical firm’s consolidated net profit to Rs 506 crore for the quarter ended December failed to cheer investors. Its net profit stood at Rs 324 crore in the year-ago period.

The counter tumbled to a low of Rs 2,359.55 as against Rs 2,470.50 at previous close on the National Stock Exchange.

Benchmark indices fell sharply on Thursday with the BSE Sensex giving up 1000 points while the Nifty50 fell below the 17,000 mark.

Revenue from operation grew 56 per cent to Rs 3,346 crore during the third quarter of this fiscal year from Rs 2,146 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, PTI reported.

According to PTI’s report, SRF Ltd Managing Director, Ashish Bharat Ram said October-December had been an outstanding quarter for the company. "Except for the technical textiles segment, which was impacted by soft market conditions, every other segment performed exceedingly well."

The company remains cautiously optimistic about its performance going forward, Ram was quoted as saying.

For the nine months period ended December 31, 2021, the company’s net profit grew 57 per cent to Rs 1,283 crore as against Rs 817 crore the same period a year ago, reports said. Revenue for the nine months period April-December 2021 increased 53 per cent to Rs 8,884 crore versus Rs 5,792 crore a year ago, reports said.

The Board of Directors have approved a second interim dividend at the rate of Rs 4.75 per share, reports said.