Rising temperatures and promo offers alleviate the pain This summer, we conducted several channel checks surveying over 25 dealers across 15 of the most populous cities in India to track room AC sales during the season. The key takeaways are as follows: a) volumes improved sequentially during May-June'18 (vs. a 1520% YoY decline in Apr) as average temperatures increased in the second half of May and June (Exhibit 1); b) overall volumes were down 10-15% in 1QFY19, but the increasing share of inverter ACs and price hikes of 3-5% are likely to keep sales growth at -5 to 0%'; c) Voltas, Hitachi and Daikin fared better than competition as Samsung and Panasonic suffered, while Blue Star and Lloyd continued to maintain share in their territories; d) aggressive...