The stock of two wheeler maker Eicher Motors was the highest gainer among BSE 100 stocks, rising 6.6 per cent in trade on Friday. The gains came on the back of better than expected performance in the March quarter of the 2022-23 financial year (Q4FY23) and earnings upgrades by brokerages. Standalone revenues (Royal Enfield) were up 19.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY), led by an 18 per cent growth in volumes and a marginal uptick in realisations.
The stock of India's largest agrochemical player - UPL (formerly United Phosphorus) - fell 2.8 per cent in trade. It was among the top losers in the BSE 100 on Tuesday. Weak 2022-23 (FY23) January-March quarter (fourth quarter, or Q4) performance and muted near-term outlook led to the decline. The company reported lacklustre growth in revenue of 4 per cent on the back of a price reduction of 3 per cent and volume growth of 1 per cent.
India's largest two-wheeler maker by volume - Hero MotoCorp (Hero) - posted a better-than-expected operating performance in the January-March (fourth quarter, or Q4) quarter of 2022-23 (FY23). Riding on higher average selling prices which were up 5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and volume growth of 7 per cent, the company registered a 12 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 8,306 crore. The company sold 127,000 units in the quarter, largely driven by domestic sales which were up 11.6 per cent, while exports saw a sharp fall of 57 per cent over the year-ago quarter.
Titan posted better than expected revenue growth in the March quarter of the financial year 2022-23 (Q4FY23), powered by strong demand trends in the jewellery and watch segment. Standalone jewellery sales for the firm were up 24 per cent year-on-year (YoY) on a slightly lower base and aided by like-to-like growth of 19 per cent. The company highlighted that new buyer growth was at 15 per cent while average ticket size was up 8 per cent.
The hiring scenario is for the batch that passes out in 2024. These are graduates who will be impacted, given 2022 graduates are not fully absorbed and 2023 onboarding still incomplete.
In the technology (tech) world, especially storage, Sanjay Mehrotra is a well-known name. Co-founder of SanDisk, a flash memory storage company in 1988, it was eventually acquired by Western Digital in 2016 for a whopping $19 billion. For a boy from Kanpur, who went on to pursue higher studies in the US, becoming the chief executive officer of Micron Technology, Inc - one of America's largest memory chip makers - and now setting up the company's first plant in India, it has been quite a ride.
Made-in-India apps -- the likes of QuackQuack, TrulyMadly, and Aisle -- are wooing Internet users in smaller towns. Indian consumers spent close to $10 million in 2022 on dating and friendship apps.
'Every time a new tech comes in, there are a set of people who will predict that this will be the end of Indian IT and every time the Indian IT industry and overall technology providers have proven to be resilient.'
'Even during the pandemic we did it.' 'We think it's our responsibility to make sure that we manage the uncertainty.'
IT services major Wipro is reconsidering a proposal of buy back of equity shares, said the company in a regulatory filing. A final decision on this will be taken during the board meeting to be held on April 26-27. The outcome of the board meeting will be communicated to the stock exchanges soon after conclusion on April 27.
After lagging behind other segments in the automotive (auto) space over the past few years, two-wheelers are expected to reverse their volume underperformance. After witnessing a 36.3 per cent volume decline over the 2018-19 (FY19) through 2021-22 (FY22) periods, the sector staged a recovery in 2022-23 (FY23), with volumes rising 17 per cent. While volumes are still a quarter lower than the FY19 peak of 21 million units, a double-digit growth trajectory is expected to prolong.
The stock of Divis Laboratories is up 10 per cent over the last couple of trading sessions on expectations that the worst is behind and the company could see a sequential growth in the March quarter of the 2022-23 financial year (Q4FY23). The stock witnessed the highest downgrades among Nifty50 index stocks with earnings cuts over a third after the Q3FY23 results. The company had posted a 32 per cent drop in revenues over the year ago quarter in Q3FY23 and 8 per cent sequentially, which was sharply lower than Street expectations.
Wipro is in the news, again. The information technology (IT) services company has mandated freshers, who had opted for a lower salary package of Rs 3.5 lakh per annum, instead of Rs 6.5 lakh per annum, clear a new training module titled Project Readiness Program (PRP) and score at least 60 per cent or stand terminated. Wipro is not the only company to have implemented such a programme.
The stock of the retail chain Avenue Supermarts (Dmart) was the biggest loser in the BSE 100 Index shedding 4.35 per cent on Thursday and added to these losses on Monday by falling an additional 1.3 per cent. The Street was reacting to lower than expected operational performance by the company in the March quarter. The country's largest listed retailer by market capitalisation reported a 20 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in its top line to Rs 10,337 crore.
'With this revamp the anonymous journey of the user will begin wherein he will not have to sign in every time he accesses the app.'
With revenue growth impacted and uncertainty deepening in major markets, India's second largest IT services firm, Infosys, saw a net reduction in its headcount in the fourth quarter of financial year 2022-23 (Q4FY23). Infosys' workforce saw a net reduction of 3,611 employees, bringing its total headcount to 343,234. This was also the first time in many years that the company did not provide a hiring target for the next fiscal.
The third-quarter financials didn't excite market watchers. But equity investors can still make money if they invest in the right stocks.
IT services firms' revenue growth in the fourth quarter will be affected by macro-driven headwinds, lower working-days, and the fact of the three-month period being low season. Analysts are expecting FY24 growth to be muted. Revenue growth will decline 600-700 basis points to 10-12 per cent for FY24, said a CRISIL Ratings report. The 10-12 per cent growth rate is a fall from the 18-20 per cent expected in FY23 and around 19 per cent growth in FY22, the highest in eight years, said the CRISIL Ratings report.
The stock of auto component major Bosch was up 2.5 per cent on Wednesday and in the process hit its 52-week high. Expectations of higher volumes of medium and heavy commercial vehicles' (M&HCV), rise in content supplies on account of BS VI stage 2 implementation from April, and improved profitability are some of the positives for the stock. In addition to this, the company appointed a new managing director and joint managing director last week, which will come into effect from July 1.
Brokerages have cut their estimates of listed diagnostics players for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) after mixed December quarter results and muted near-term outlook. Their volumes and realisations will be under pressure due to weakness in Covid-adjusted performance and higher competitive pressures, the brokerages believe. In a post-Q3 results note on Dr Lal Pathlabs, Bhavesh Gandhi of YES Securities pointed out that there has been a lack of volume revival in recent quarters, with an increasing likelihood that FY24 too would be a work-in-progress year for the company's initiatives to bear fruit.