Wockhardt hit a 52-week abyss at Rs 306.05 in early trades after the company reported a steep 64% fall in net profit.

The scrip of the pharmaceuticals concern made some way back later, but was still down 12.05% to Rs 318.25 on BSE by 10:00 IST. Around 5,095 Wockhardt shares were traded on BSE by then.

After market hours Wednesday, Wockhardt recorded its first quarter ended 31 March 2003 performance. For Q1, the company showed a 64% fall in net profit to Rs 8.50 crore compared to Rs 23.70 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net sales dropped 8.65% to Rs 151 crore (Rs 1.51 billion) from Rs 165.3 crore (Rs 1.65 billion) in MQ 2002. A key indicator of profitability, operating profit, declined by a huge 52% to Rs 15 crore.

capitalmarket.com's expectations (from a poll of seven pharmaceutical analysts) for the company were brighter - a net profit in the range of Rs 18.4 crore to Rs 25.8 crore and net sales of between Rs 165 crore (Rs 1.65 billion) and Rs 175.6 crore (Rs 1.75 billion).

This has been the second successive quarter of declining profits for the company. For the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2002, the company posted a sharp 43.8% fall in net profit to Rs 18.30 crore on flat total income of Rs 178.10 crore (Rs 1.78 billion).

For the year ended 31 December 2002, net profit rose just 6.5% to Rs 108.90 crore (Rs 1.08 billion) on a 13.8% increase in total income to Rs 743.30 crore (Rs 7.43 billion).

At the time of declaring its Q4 and FY 2002 results, the company had informed that tightening of inventory at the dealer level, resistance by the unionised field force to the implementation of the new incentive-based remuneration and a substantial decline in Hepatitis-B sales had impacted the company's performance.

Wockhardt plans to introduce two new products - recombinant human insulin and Interferon alpha 2b - in the domestic market this year. Wockhardt's focus is on chronic therapies, mainly biotech products in diabetics and oncology, with a thrust on vaccines and generics with delivery-based products. Market men feel that this thrust on the high margin business holds the key to Wockhardt's future growth.

In 2000, the company restructured itself, spinning off its parenterals business and the Rs 100-crore (Rs 1 billion) agribusiness into a separate company, Wockhardt Life Sciences. With this change came a shift away from the product portfolio dominated by low-margin acute therapy products - anti-infectives and the pain-relievers - towards biotech and high-margin products.

Meanwhile, Wockhardt's board has recommended a dividend of Rs 6.50 per share or 65% for FY 2002.