ITC Q2 PAT up 21% at Rs 2,230.5 crore on back of higher cigarette margins

KOLKATA: ITC Ltd on Friday reported 21.4% jump in net profit at Rs 2230.53 crore for the second quarter ended 30th September, 2013, led by jump in margins in its flagship cigarette business.

The Kolkata based cigarette-FMCG-hotel conglomerate's net sales jumped by 8.8% at Rs 7775.79 crore during the quarter, driven by 15-20% price increase in cigarette business, growth in the non-cigarette FMCG business comprising of packaged food and personal care business, and improvement in the hotel business.

ITC also reduced its losses in the non-cigarette FMCG business during the quarter, even though it failed to rake in profit for the second consecutive quarter after the business posted its maiden profit in the fourth quarter of last fiscal. The losses came down to Rs 12.69 crore during second quarter as compared to Rs 30.31 crore in the same period last year.

While ITC announced its results in the closing hours of Friday trading, the stock fell by 0.74% to close at Rs 340 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on a day the benchmark Sensex too fell by 0.2%.