Bangalore: The rate of growth in consumer durables (CD) has been going up steadily every month. In the last one month the stocks of consumer durables increased by almost four percent. Compared to last year, however the value of CD stocks has dropped by almost 12 percent from 3328.76 points to 2953.90 points at today's close but at the same time it grew by approximately four percent in the last week. Economic meltdown has affected the CD market drastically. The stock chart is given on the left.

Analysts feel that the announcement of government to cut excise duty by two percent in the month of February might be one of the reasons for the steady growth of this sector.


When markets closed today, the total market capitalization of the CD stocks was Rs4,749,934.04 crores. Out of 17 stocks listed on the BSE in CD sector, six of them are trading in green while 11 of them are still in red. The CD stocks plunge 4.53 points to close the day 0.15 percent below yesterday's close of 2958.43. The stock had reached an intraday high of 3176.94 points but it could not sustain through the day. In all of Rs 8 lakh CD shares were traded through the day.


In CD sector, Videocon Industries has been affected most in this slowdown as it reported a 70.94 percent fall in its net profit to Rs72.98 crore during the second quarter ended 31 March 2009, over the corresponding period a year earlier. The company had a net profit of Rs.251.22 crore in January-March quarter last fiscal year.

After facing problems in growing the demand, consumer durables firms like LG, Philips and Haier are working on a combination of initiatives like launching new range or products, adding innovation to design and features and giving greater marketing thrust to reach more consumers. For instance, while LG has recently upgraded its microwave range by including India-specific features, Chinese consumer durable firm Haier plans to introduce its first range of small kitchen appliances in the next one-two years period.

Most of the major CD stocks traded flat last week. Titan gained just one percent in the last one week, Videocon also did not gain much as it went up by just two percent and even Siemens gained just one percent. Amidst of all the problems, BPL managed to maintain the momentum and gained by around eight percent last week.