Avenue Supermarts shares surge 4% on new store launch; analysts cite this as a key trigger

Shares of Avenue Supermarts Ltd., the parent of hypermarket chain DMart, are trading with gains of up to 4% on Wednesday, June 18.

Avenue Supermarts opened a store at Ratan Mall, Agra (Uttar Pradesh). This is first major store opening in Uttar Pradesh after city of Ghaziabad, which is India’s most populous state. The company does have stores at Ghaziabad.

Global brokerage firm Morgan Stanley wrote in its note that DMart follows an ownership model for its retail stores, with a cluster-based approach (focus on increasing penetration in existing areas/states) for store expansion.

This implies that the company prioritises opening stores near existing stores and distribution centres prior to expanding across newer regions.
The brokerage views this opening in the state of Uttar Pradesh as a positive step and would closely track the company’s pace of expansion in the state, where the opportunity to open stores remains large.

This takes the overall store count to 421, with six net new store additions in the first quarter of FY26 so far.

Morgan Stanley has an ‘Underweight’ rating on Avenue Supermarts, with a price target of ₹3,260 per share.

At the end of the March quarter, promoters of Avenue Supermarts had a 74.63% stake in the company.

India’s domestic mutual funds had a 7.63% stake, while nearly 6.5 lakh retail shareholders, or those with an authorised share capital of up to ₹2 lakh, had a 3.1% stake.

Shares of Avenue Supermarts Ltd. are currently trading 3.46% higher at ₹4,198.30. The stock is flat over the last one month but has risen 18% so far this year.