Kalyan Jewellers India said on Tuesday that consolidated profit after tax rose 64% from a year earlier to INR 4.27 billion in the September quarter, as revenue climbed 31% to INR 103.23 billion on strong festival and wedding buying. Its shares rallied more than 12% to a record high on Wednesday, The Hindu BusinessLine reported.

The result gives investors in Asia a fresh read on Indian household spending during the festival and wedding season. Kalyan, based in Thrissur in Kerala, describes itself as one of India's largest jewellery retailers, with 546 showrooms in India, the Middle East, the United States and Britain.

For the first half of the fiscal year that ends in March, consolidated revenue rose 38% to INR 209.12 billion and profit rose 48% to INR 7.76 billion, the company said.

A land sale lifts the headline number

Part of the profit jump came from outside the jewellery business. Kalyan booked an exceptional gain of INR 734.64 million in the quarter from selling part of a land holding it classed as investment property, according to notes to its financial statements filed with the exchanges.

Stripping that out, consolidated profit before exceptional items and tax was INR 4.87 billion, up about 39% from INR 3.50 billion a year earlier. That is still faster than revenue growth, which points to better operating leverage, but it is a less dramatic gain than the 64% headline.

The company has been selling land it no longer needs. In its October trading update, Kalyan said it had completed the sale of one of two identified parcels of non-core real estate, valued at about INR 860 million, and expected to sell the second, valued at about INR 160 million, in the current quarter. The board also approved the future sale of another freehold plot with a carrying value of INR 76.04 million, the filing showed. Kalyan said in October that its debt other than gold metal loans had fallen to zero.

The India business did most of the work. Standalone revenue, which covers India operations, rose 32% to INR 90.07 billion, and standalone profit rose 62% to INR 4.24 billion. In the trading update, the company put same-store sales growth for the quarter at about 20%, even against a tough comparison: all nine days of the Navratri festival fell in the September quarter last year.

Middle East slower, Candere faster

Overseas operations grew more slowly. International revenue rose about 18% and made up roughly 11% of the consolidated total, the October update said. In the Middle East, revenue rose about 12%, all from same-store sales growth.

Candere, the company's lifestyle jewellery brand aimed at lighter, everyday pieces, grew revenue about 64%. During the quarter Kalyan opened 12 Kalyan showrooms in India (11 net of closures), nine Candere showrooms and one Kalyan store in the United Kingdom. In August it also launched its first regional brand, Akshaya Thanga Maligai, in Chennai, and it plans four more franchised showrooms under that name this fiscal year.

The franchise model matters to investors because it lets Kalyan add stores without carrying all the inventory, which is the main use of capital for a jeweller. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, the executive director, said in the results statement that the current quarter had "started off very well," with strong sales during Navratri and Dhanteras, and that the company was upbeat about the wedding season.

Carmakers have also leaned on the festival calendar, with Maruti Suzuki reporting record October sales.

What brokerages said

UBS kept its buy rating and a target price of INR 900, BusinessLine reported. The bank expects earnings per share to grow at a compound 35% a year from fiscal 2026 to fiscal 2029, and named gold price swings and the execution of the franchise rollout as the main risks.

HSBC also kept a buy rating, with a target of INR 770. It said that inventory gains and customs duty benefits needed more explanation before analysts could judge how profitable the underlying business really is, according to the same report. Rising gold prices can lift a jeweller's margins for a time because stock bought earlier is sold at higher prices.

That question will carry into the December quarter, which includes Dhanteras, Diwali and the start of the wedding season. Kalyan published its September-quarter trading update on Oct. 7, a week after the quarter closed; a similar update for the December quarter would be the first read on those sales.