Deepak Nitrite soars 8% on stellar March quarter earnings

The stock is trading close to its all-time high of Rs 305 touched on September 27, 2018.

Shares of Deepak Nitrite soared 8 per cent intra-day Monday to Rs 296 apiece, after the company reported robust 179 per cent growth in standalone net profit at Rs 56.6 crore in March quarter (Q4FY19). It had a profit of Rs 20.3 crore in year-ago quarter.

Revenue from operations rose 23.6 per cent during Q4FY19 at Rs 486 crore against Rs 393 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

"The Q4 performance is testament to the strategic choices of products identified for capacity expansion at the start of the fiscal. Apt assessment of market demand enabled the company to reap benefits from higher realisations across key products even as overall volume growth was 11 per cent yoy," the company said in a statement.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margins also improved sharply by 880 basis points to 22.7 per cent, as compared to 13.9 per cent in Q4 FY18.

"Our efforts at running plants at optimum capacities with streamlined processes were more than supported by the developments in the China market, all of which has combined to contribute to the enriched margin profile," the statement said.

According to the commodity chemical major, chemical intermediates were witnessing a big jump in demand due to growth in domestic end user industries and reduced availability of intermediates from China.

"The management expects the situation to remain conducive for the foreseeable future," it said  adding, "Various initiatives are being undertaken including debottlenecking, small expansions and capex to enhance plant efficiencies which will enable the company to continue the momentum in performance across all the segments, in the quarters ahead". 

At 10:15 am, Deepak Nitrite was trading 6 per cent higher at Rs 290 on the BSE, in an otherwise weak market. The stock was trading near its all-time high of Rs 305 touched on September 27, 2018. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.81 per cent or 321 points at 38,642.

The trading volumes on the counter jumped more than 6-fold with a combined 1.42 million shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE so far.