India's Shoppers Stop posts jump in Q4 profit on higher demand

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Shoppers Stop on Monday reported nearly a 53% rise in fourth-quarter profit, helped by demand in its beauty segment as well as luxury products.

The early start of end-of-season sales and events like Valentine's Day drove heightened sales volumes, while high-income urban consumers favoured luxury makeup and fragrances for social and professional engagements, further boosting top-line growth.

The Mumbai-based chain reported a profit before exceptional item and tax of 300.7 million rupees ($3.60 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with 197.1 million rupees a year earlier.

It also recorded an exceptional item of 15.9 million rupees in the quarter.

Shoppers Stop, which sells products of brands like Swarovski, Versace, Michael Kors and Bobbi Brown, said its revenue from operations rose 13.3% to 10.46 billion rupees.

Peer Tata Group-owned Trent reported a five-fold jump in quarterly profit, while Arvind Fashions and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail are yet to report results.

Shares of Shoppers Stop closed 0.6% higher ahead of the results. They rose 9.3% during the March quarter.

($1 = 83.4614 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Navamya Ganesh Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)