Titan Shares Fall After Reporting Loss In Q1 As Covid-19 Rattles Business

Titan Company shares fell as much as 5.2 per cent to hit an intraday low of Rs 1,050.20 on the BSE after the company reported loss of Rs 270 crore in quarter ended June 30 as against profit of Rs 371 crore during the same quarter last year. Titan's business was severely by the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. "Disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic in India affected the performance of Titan Company Ltd severely with retail outlets closed for a major part of the quarter," the jewellery and watch retailer said in a press release.

Titan's revenue, from sale of products and services, in June quarter fell 74 per cent annually to Rs 1,251 crore.

"The lockdowns impacted the company's operations significantly in the months of April and May 2020 as most stores were forced to shut down. While stores started opening in May, post Unlock 1.0, even as at end of June 2020, only 83 per cent of all the stores opened and even for stores that opened, many of them were not operating for all days," the Bengaluru-based company said in a press release.

Consumer sentiment was impacted severely due to the economic downturn, people being forced to remain indoors for extended periods of time as most people worked from home and the perceived risk of going out to public spaces. Further with most weddings in the quarter being postponed, demand for wedding jewellery was affected, Titan Company added.

"The severity of the disruption in business due to the pandemic impacted the Company's performance resulting in an unprecedented loss for the company. The recovery in business, particularly in the jewellery business is encouraging and we expect to get back to normalcy by the fourth quarter of this year," C K Venkataraman, Managing Director of the Company said in a statement.

As of 11:52am, Titan shares traded 3.55 per cent lower at Rs 1,068.45, underperforming the Sensex which was up 0.62 per cent.