Stock market today: Shares of Avenue Supermarts, which operates the retail chain DMart, tumbled 5% in the trading session on Friday, April 04, to slip below the ₹4,000 mark, reaching ₹3,946 apiece. This decline came following the company’s March 2025 quarter (Q4FY25) business update, which fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In an exchange filing on Thursday, the company reported standalone revenue from operations of ₹14,462 crore for the March quarter, reflecting an increase of over 16.67% from ₹12,393 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year (Q4FY24).
During the quarter, the company opened 28 new stores—the highest quarterly addition in the last four years. With these new openings, the total store count has reached 415.
Overall, the company has added 50 stores in FY25 (which is one of its key metrics), which is higher than 41 stores in FY24 and 40 stores in FY23. The FY25 store addition count also came in higher than analysts’ estimates of 40.
Earlier, in its annual investors’ day, the company had guided that the store count addition would, over the long term, sustain a 10-15% CAGR.
Meanwhile, the company reported weaker-than-expected results for the December quarter, as rising Q-commerce activity continued to affect store performance in metro cities—though the impact was less severe than in Q2FY25.
Earlier, in its Q3 results update report, Axis Securities stated that the company will continue to face challenges in optimising its overall store metrics in the near term due to several factors, such as increasing competition from both organized players (Reliance, Star Bazaar, Zudio) and online players (Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart), resulting in erosion of market share in metros and smaller towns.
Further, it noted that higher discounts to mitigate the impact of rising competition will affect the overall profitability of the company. Additionally, discretionary demand continues to remain subdued, with a meaningful recovery anticipated only from FY26 onwards. Larger and newer stores also have longer gestation periods, thereby impacting the overall store performance, it added.
Stock price trend
The company shares have recovered 20% in March after losing 33% in 5 months. At current levels, the stock is trading 32% lower from its peak of ₹5900 apiece, which it attained in October 2021.
Analysts noted that recent fundraising by the top three quick commerce players has significantly intensified competition. While they believe DMart’s value-driven model can coexist with the convenience-led model of quick commerce in the long run, heightened pricing pressure may weigh on DMart’s growth and margins in the near term.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
