FMCG and cigarette major ITC fell out of the list of top 10 biggest Indian firms after a sharp drop in share price, which cut its market capitalisation by Rs 34,000 crore in just two sessions.
ITC shares have fallen 11.16 per cent over the last sessions after the government increased taxes on cigarettes.
The stock fell 5.09 per cent on Monday to Rs 207.70.
The market capitalisation of the company that stood at Rs 2.89 lakh crore on Friday, and slipped to Rs 2.55 lakh crore on Monday.Now, 11 firms are more valued than ITC Reliance Industries, TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, SBI and Bajaj Finance.
The last three companies were below ITC on the list on Friday.Credit Suisse in a note said specific tax on cigarettes have been increased 11-16 per cent across various slabs, which will require ITC to take a 10-15 per cent price hike that too in a very weak macro environment.
This may cause a high single digit volume decline, the global broker added.Even after taking price hikes of over 10 per cent, cigarette EBIT is likely to be flat in the best case in FY21.
Further, the risk of a GST cess hike does not go away, Credit Suisse said.Globally, valuations of major tobacco stocks have seen consistent derating over the past 3-5 years, and their returns have lagged equity benchmarks, a recent study by Edelweiss Securities said.ITC is down 12.6 per cent YTD, against 3.35 per cent drop in Sensex.
In a span of one year, the stock has eroded 26 per cent against a gain of 9.33 per cent in the 30-share pack.