KOLKATA: The diversified ITC group is embracing the online marketplace route to push its lifestyle retail business, especially its apparel brand John Players, which it plans to expand into newer categories.

Atul Chand, ITC's chief executive for lifestyle retailing business, said the company is considering introducing the John Players brand in categories such as footwear, eyewear, backpacks and bags, all of which will be sold through online marketplaces.

Shares of ITC were down 1.7% at Rs 330 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company announced the closure of its cigarette factories with effect from April 1, 2016 until clarity emerges in the current uncertain state of the rules on health warning.

In mid October 2014 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a notification said that the health warnings should occupy 85% of the front and back panels of the cigarette package. The effective date of this new warning was notified as April 1, 2015, the company said in a release.

FMCG major ITC Ltd had acquired Technico Agri Sciences Ltd India (Technico India), the company announced on Thursday.

"The company has acquired the entire equity share capital of Technico Agri Sciences Limited, India, from Technico Pty Limited, Australia," the company said in a BSE filing.

Defying a hike in excise duty on tobacco products, the ITC stock on Tuesday opened Rs 9 higher than its Monday closing price on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In fact after a sharp dip of 5-6% soon after the announcement of an increase in excise duty on most tobacco products in the Union Budget for 2016-17, it had recovered and closed in the green yesterday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday announced a 10% increase in excise duty on cigarettes, but analysts had already factored in an 8-10% increase anyway.

ITC, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HDFC Bank and Cipla from the 30 share S&P BSE Sensex index hitting their respective 52-week lows after the index tanked 660 points during intra-day trade.

ACC, Ambuja Cements, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nestle India, Thermax and Tech Mahindra are from the 73 stocks from BSE500 index touching their 52-week lows.

Five companies - ITC, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Cipla, ICICI Bank and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) - from the 30 share Sensex hit their respective 52-week lows on the BSE in intra-day trade today.

At 01:55 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was down nearly 1% or 207 points at 23,203, fallen nearly 600 points in past two trading sessions on continues selling of equities by foreign investors.

Cigarettes to consumer goods major ITC Ltd on Wednesday unveiled three major projects in West Bengal, where it is headquartered, which could mean an investment of nearly Rs 3,000 crore.

These projects involve two integrated consumer goods manufacturing facilities in Uluberia (400,000 sq ft) and Panchla (800,000 sq ft) and an information technology (IT) facility (2.7 million sq ft) in Rajarhat, near the state’s capital.

The earnings season so far has been by and large disappointing with most heavyweights not living up to expectations —TCS, Wipro, ITC and Idea Cellular have all turned in numbers that were below estimates — and just a couple of strong performances from Infosys and Reliance Industries. A sluggish economy, in which there is very little investment taking place and unutilised capacity remains high, has virtually killed the demand for capital goods.

Cigarette-to-hotel major ITC’s October-December earnings missed analysts’ expectations, with its net profit rising marginally. The net rose by only 0.7 per cent to Rs 2,652.82 crore, against Rs 2,635 crore in the same quarter of the year-ago period.

ITC attributed the performance to severe pressure on cigarette volumes, lack of trading opportunities in agri-commodities and a weak demand prevailing in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry.

Diversified group ITC’s instant noodles brand Yippee is inching closer to become a Rs 1,000- crore brand, making the most out of the controversy that hit rival Nestle’s Maggi.

“Sunfeast YiPPee! as a brand is now in its fifth year post the national rollout… We are proud to say that Yippee Noodles is poised to enter the Rs 1,000 crore club in the ITC Foods stable,” ITC Ltd Divisional Chief Executive, Foods Division V L Rajesh told PTI.

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