Asian Paints (APL) recorded muted volume growth of ~2% YoY in Q1FY18 due to a sharp decline in primary sales in May 2017 and June 2017. This was on account of de-stocking of inventory at dealer level before implementation of GST. Additionally, the company has taken price hike of ~3% YoY to partly offset the higher raw material cost. Further, industrial paint demand (automotive, powder coating) stayed intact in the auto OEM and industrial liquid paint segment APL recorded ~450 bps decline in gross margin due to an increase in...