Sluggish urban market to weigh on HUL, price hikes may help

High raw material costs limited the margin gains even as the company spent less on advertising during the quarter. The raw material cost grew 5% on year and constituted 49.6% of the revenues, driven by inflation in tea and crude palm oil prices. The company’s ad spends declined 15% on year with these spends standing at 9.5% of net sales.