Shares of MNC pharma major GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd were trading at a 52-week high despite posting a flat growth in Q1 of 2013 compared to the same quarter in the previous year. (The company follows a January-December fiscal).

However, it has witnessed a sharp jump in net profit in the quarter ended March 31, 2013 compared to the corresponding quarter in the earlier fiscal largely because of lower provisioning.

Income, net profit

According to the standalone financial results, total income from operations was Rs 632.14 crore against Rs 622.78 crore in the same quarter last year.

Profit from ordinary activities (before exceptional items) was lower at Rs 240.41 crore (Rs 272.02 crore). 

But a lower provisioning for exceptional items at Rs 1.56 crore (Rs 92.97 crore) helped, despite a higher tax expense at Rs 69.84 crore (Rs 56.16 crore), to post a substantially higher net profit of Rs 169.01 crore (Rs 122.89 crore).

Hasit B. Joshipura, Managing Director, GSK Pharmaceuticals, said that the growth “was impacted by the core pharmaceuticals business which was flat compared to the same period last year’’ and attributed the significant impact on growth to “supply chain related issues’’. 

Stock price

The stock hit a new 52-week high of Rs 2,522 in the morning trade today. But after the company came out with its Q1 results, the stock lost some momentum and was trading at Rs 2,381.70, still a new high and up by Rs 64.30, about an hour before the trading was to close, on the BSE.

There was a spurt in trading volume with about 22,700 shares being traded against the two-week average of 3,274 shares.

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