Astral shares tank 7% post Q1 numbers; stock among midcap’s top losers; key details

Shares of Astral Ltd tumbled 7 per cent in Tuesday’s trade after the PVC pipe manufacturer posted a weak set of June quarter numbers on inventory losses and poor realisations. The company’s net profit fell 32.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 81.10 crore in Q1 from Rs 120.40 crore in the same period last year.

The stock declined 7.5 per cent to hit a low of Rs 1,277.70 on BSE over its previous close of Rs 1,382.25. At 10:23 am, the scrip was trading 7.07 per cent lower at Rs 1,284.50. The counter has slipped nearly 37 per cent from its 52-week high of Rs 2,039.95 apiece.

For the June quarter, Astral reported a 1.6 per cent fall in revenue from the operations at Rs 1,361.2 crore against Rs 1,383.6 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Additionally, Astral on Monday informed the stock exchanges that its board has approved the acquisition of an 80 per cent equity stake in Nexelon Chem Pvt Ltd for a par value of Rs 80,000, along with a planned investment of up to Rs 120 crore over time.

The acquisition is part of a Rs 150 crore project to set up a facility with an annual capacity of 40,000 metric tonnes of CPVC resin. The transaction is expected to close within 60 days, with commercial production targeted to begin in the second quarter of FY27.

In an exchange filing, the company said that polymer prices remained volatile during the June quarter, with average PVC prices falling around 14 per cent year-on-year and 4–5 per cent sequentially, leading to inventory losses and impacting realisations. However, it added that PVC prices have started stabilising since the beginning of Q2, which is expected to aid better realisations and boost demand, a trend already visible in July.

Among technical indicators, the scrip is trading below its 5-day, 10-, 20-, 30-, 50-, 100-, 150- and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs). The stock is among the top losers on the BSE Midcap.