Dear Reader,
Wednesday’s earnings mix was a wide one, spanning FMCG shelves, paint cans, ports and auto showrooms, and the day’s clearest beat came from Eicher Motors. Best known as the maker of Royal Enfield, Eicher reported consolidated profit of ₹1,462.5 crore, up 22% on the year and comfortably ahead of the ₹1,390 crore the Street expected. Revenue rose 32% to ₹6,632.4 crore against a poll of ₹6,402 crore, while EBITDA climbed 32%. The company’s board also approved a fresh ₹1,225 crore investment towards a greenfield expansion in Andhra Pradesh, signalling confidence that the growth story has further to run.
Colgate-Palmolive‘s toothpaste business saw high single-digit volume growth, pushing revenue up 12% to ₹1,603 crore, ahead of the ₹1,577 crore the Street expected, while profit rose 7% to ₹343 crore, just shy of the ₹345 crore poll estimate. Margins, however, slipped as the company stepped up spending on advertising and category premiumisation. “We leveraged these strong margins to increase our focused investments in brand building and category premiumisation throughout the quarter,” said Prabha Narasimhan, MD and CEO, adding that continued investment in advertising would support growth going forward.
Dabur India told a similar story from a different angle, reporting a better-than-expected profit and a third straight quarter of double-digit earnings growth. Domestic volume growth, however, came in at 5%, below the 6% to 8% the Street had modelled, with the company pointing to persistent inflation, volatile commodity prices and continuing uncertainty in the Middle East as the backdrop for the quarter.
Procter & Gamble Hygiene had the harder morning of the three, with its shares falling as much as 5.5% after both profit and revenue declined in the June quarter. Sales fell 5% to ₹901 crore as higher commodity costs and stepped-up advertising spend weighed on performance.
Two beats, two rallies
Shares of Asian Paints jumped as much as 5% after its decorative business posted 9% volume growth, right at the midpoint of the Street’s 8% to 10% expectation, while revenue of ₹10,542 crore beat estimates, rising 18% on the year. Industrial coatings maintained their mid-teen growth trajectory, while the international business expanded 27% in rupee terms. MD and CEO Amit Syngle credited the company’s innovation-led strategy and deeper consumer connect, adding that the West Asia business remained resilient despite the ongoing conflict in the region.
KPIT Technologies saw an even sharper market reaction, with the stock climbing 10%, even though the quarter itself looked fairly muted on paper. Constant currency revenue fell 4% sequentially, broadly in line with the 3.5% decline the Street had pencilled in, while dollar revenue slipped 0.6% year on year. What mattered was the comparison with management’s own warning earlier this month of a possible 1% annual decline—a hurdle the company comfortably cleared. KPIT also said its US business remained resilient, led by after-sales and vehicle engineering.
Adani Ports held steady, a bank stumbled, and Vedanta’s businesses pulled in different directions
Adani Ports stood by its full-year EBITDA guidance of ₹25,000–26,000 crore after reporting another steady quarter, with revenue rising 19% to ₹10,821 crore and profit increasing 9% to ₹3,620 crore.
Adani Enterprises, by contrast, slipped into a net loss of ₹1,160 crore after taking a one-off charge of ₹2,644 crore related to a settlement with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Strip out that exceptional hit, however, and the operating picture looked considerably healthier, with revenue rising 50% and EBITDA growing 17.5%, suggesting the underlying businesses continued to fire even as the exceptional item dominated the headline numbers.
J&K Bank had the sharpest stock fall of the day among lenders, tumbling more than 13% after profit fell 13% on higher funding costs and margin pressure, even as the bank crossed the ₹3 lakh crore mark in total business for the first time and continued to improve asset quality.
Vedanta’s businesses, meanwhile, moved in three different directions within the same group. Vedanta Iron & Steel swung back to profit sequentially, posting ₹121 crore against a loss in the previous quarter, while Oil & Gas also returned to the black with a profit of ₹945 crore. Power was the outlier, slipping to a net loss of ₹423 crore from a profit of ₹139 crore in the previous quarter, as EBITDA nearly halved and margins narrowed to 11.16% from 22.13% following a one-off expense.Waaree Energies rounded off the day with another blockbuster top-line performance. Revenue surged 79%, while profit rose 14%. Margins, however, eased to 18.2% from 22.5% a year ago as the company continued to scale up execution and the revenue mix shifted. Even so, the numbers reinforced the strong demand momentum underpinning India’s solar manufacturing story.
What we heard beyond the results
A few voices worth flagging from conversations around the earnings desk today.
City Union Bank expects some near-term pressure on margins before conditions ease in the second half of the year and is targeting full-year NIMs of around 3.65% to 3.70%.
Pine Labs’ CFO said the fintech is leaning on AI, international expansion and better monetisation of its payments stack to keep revenue growth near 20%. Meanwhile, Capri Global laid out plans to add 400 new gold loan branches this year, taking its network past 1,400 while keeping the gold loan book at roughly 55% of overall lending.
That’s Wednesday. Follow all the live updates on Q1 earnings and everything else moving the market here.
