The rally came on the heels of Birla Opus CEO Rakshit Hargave’s sudden resignation, announced during the mid-week holiday. Hargave, who had been leading the company since its launch 18 months ago, will take over as CEO of Britannia Industries from December 15.
In its latest quarterly update, Birla Opus reported continued market share gains across multiple regions, supported by a rapid expansion of its network to over 10,000 towns and 140 depots. When combined with revenues from Birla Opus and Birla White Putty, the company’s market share has now crossed into double digits, highlighting its growing presence in the paints market.
Adding to the positive sentiment around Asian Paints, crude oil prices—a key input cost for paint manufacturers—have fallen to a two-week low, after US crude inventories rose by 5 million barrels on a weekly basis, the largest jump since July.
Separately, Asian Paints is set to gain higher weightage in the MSCI Standard Index, following the latest rebalance by the index provider. Estimates from Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research suggest this could result in foreign inflows worth about USD 95 million.
Meanwhile, Nomura has turned bullish on Asian Paints, upgrading the stock to “Buy” from “Neutral” and raising the target price to Rs 3,100 from Rs 2,285 earlier—signaling a potential 25% upside from Tuesday’s closing price.At about 11 am, shares of the company were trading at Rs 2,600, higher by 4.5% from the last close on the NSE. Asian Paints shares are up 13% on a year-to-date basis.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)