BENGALURU (Reuters) – Chemicals maker BASF India on Thursday reported a jump in second-quarter profit after five-straight quarters of a fall, helped by easing input costs, sending its shares up about 9%.
The Indian arm of Germany’s BASF said its profit rose to 1.49 billion rupees ($17.90 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 1.13 billion rupees a year earlier.
Weak global demand due to inventory destocking and lower rates of Chinese supplies have hurt chemicals makers.
Last month, peer SRF reported a fall in profit for the third consecutive quarter, as its mainstay chemicals business and packaging film businesses remained under pressure.
Meanwhile, revenue from BASF India’s main materials business, which formed more than 28% of the quarterly revenue, rose 5.3% to 10.49 billion rupees.
The segment’s portfolio includes specialised goods for the plastics and plastic processing industries.
Cost of materials, which forms almost a third of the total expenses of Mumbai-based BASF India, fell 14.5%, a first in 11 quarters
Total revenue rose to 37.07 billion rupees from 35.82 billion rupees a year ago, first growth in four quarters.
Shares of BASF India closed 6.9% up after the results.
($1 = 83.2520 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Shinjini Ganguli)
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