After all-round Q1 beat, Asian Paints may find it hard to convince Street

Revenue down by 43% and PBT 70%; scepticism is around sustenance of volume recovery

The June quarter (Q1) was expected to be a complete washout for companies operating in sectors like paints because of the Covid-19 disruptions. For Asian Paints, too, analysts had estimated volumes to plunge by 50-55 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

However, the decorative paints leader surprised the Street not only with better-than-expected numbers, but also with good volume recovery — 14 per cent growth — in June, and volume decline was also lower than expected.

On a consolidated basis, Asian Paints reported a 42.8 per cent YoY decline in revenue to Rs 2,923 crore, while profit before tax was down 70.2 per cent