Pidilite Industries: Margin-improving levers spur market sentiment

Decline in cost of key raw material, favourable Rs-$ rate and price hikes of products set to enhance profitability

Pidilite Industries, the maker of popular adhesive brands such as Fevicol, Fevikwik, Dr Fixit and M-Seal, is again finding favour among investors after under performing leading indices in the past couple of months. 

On Wednesday, the stock rose over four per cent to close at Rs 1,176.6 on the BSE.

Despite a double-digit volume growth of 11 per cent in the December 2018 quarter (Q3), a sharp margin contraction had kept investors sceptical about the company’s operating efficiency. 

Though the margin pressure was clearly visible in case of other non-food consumer companies, they had managed to ease the impact through cost efficiency. 

However, now