Leading lubes maker Castrol India today said its net profit for the second quarter ended June dipped 19 per cent to Rs 124.4 crore.
Net sales, however, rose 6 per cent to Rs 910.3 crore.
Commenting on the results, Castrol India Managing Director Ravi Kirpalani said: "Profit for the reporting quarter was lower largely due to lower other income and profit from sale of non-operating assets compared to the same period last year. Profit from operations was down by 4 per cent as against the same period a year ago."
The company follows January-December financial year.
Blaming the challenging macroeconomic environment for the poor show, he said the twin headwinds of lower demand and sharp escalation in the cost of goods have been putting pressure on margins.
While personal mobility business continues to demonstrate strong underlying volume and value growth, the industrial business was even better with more than 7 per cent volume growth despite demand shrinkage in all manufacturing sectors.
"This was driven largely by new customer acquisition, distribution expansion, and differentiated product and service offers," he said.
On the business outlook, Kirpalani said the while the strong headwinds of 2013 continued into the first half of 2014, the second half looks volatile due to the macroeconomic weaknesses.
