It all started post-Covid. A number of large industrial houses announced their entry into the paint industry. From the JSW group to JK Cement, and Grasim to Pidilite, all of them entered a sector which had for long been dominated by the likes of Asian Paints. Now combine this with the fact that the Asian Paints stock, one of the biggest wealth creators on the market, has been underperforming for the last four years. Has the market priced in all the competition? Or is the sector likely to see a longer phase of competition in real business and underperformance on the street? The street has also become extremely sensitive to what happens in the company. The exit of two senior executives saw the stock slip sharply. Will the valuation matrix of the paint sector, and Asian Paints in particular, change for the better? The answer is not in black and white.
