(Yicai Global) April 15 -- Gree Electric Appliances’ stock price stumbled after the Chinese air conditioner giant predicted first-quarter net profit to have plunged by up to 77 percent from a year ago as sales stalled in February due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The company’s shares [SHE: 000651] lost 3.5 percent today to close at CNY54.41 (USD7.70) each, after dropping as much as 4.6 percent in intraday trading. The yardstick Shenzhen Composite Index came off almost 0.6 percent.

At the start of this week, Gree’s shares had gained 5.2 percent to CNY56.51, the highest in a month, following an announcement that it plans to spend up to CNY6 billion (USD849 million) repurchasing as much as 1.42 percent of its own shares. Share buybacks are usually aimed at removing some of a firm’s publicly traded shares from the secondary market, thereby buoying or raising the price of the stock.

But the Zhuhai-based home appliances maker said in an earnings report released late yesterday that its net profit likely stood at between CNY1.33 billion and CNY1.71 billion (USD188.3 million and USD242 million) in the three months ended March. Revenue probably fell by as much as half to as little as CNY20.7 billion (USD2.93 billion).

Sales of heating, ventilation and air con systems shrank due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, but also because of new energy efficiency standards, Gree said.

Chairwoman Dong Mingzhu said in a forum on March 17 that the company's February sales amounted to basically nothing in comparison with the same month in previous years when it took between CNY10 billion and CNY20 billion.

Last year, net profit fell 6 percent to CNY24.7 billion, according to its preliminary estimate. Revenue came in at CNY200.5 billion, an increase of 0.2 percent.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Emmi Laine