The third-quarter financials didn't excite market watchers. But equity investors can still make money if they invest in the right stocks.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday reported a 14.1 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 9,624 crore in the September 2021 quarter, aided by broad-based growth across geographies and verticals. The Mumbai-based company had logged a net profit of Rs 8,433 crore (excluding adjustment towards a legal claim) in the year-ago period. Its revenue grew 16.7 per cent to Rs 46,867 crore for the September 2021 quarter from Rs 40,135 crore in the year-ago period.
Bajaj Finance's quarterly business update, coupled with around 24 per cent fall over the past six months, has turned risk-reward favourable for investors, observe analysts. They see up to 39 per cent upside in the stock, from a one-year perspective. Global brokerage CLSA, for instance, has upgraded the stock from 'underperform' to 'outperform' with an increased one-year target price of Rs 6,600 (vs Rs 6,000 earlier) as it believes the risk-reward has turned favourable for the counter, and there is scope for expansion if growth remains robust.
"We will raise Rs 300 crore via bonds of two-, three- and five-year tenures. This will be our maiden bond issuance and is part of our effort to widen funding sources," says Vimal Bhandari, executive vice-chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Arka Fincap. The firm, a subsidiary of Kirloskar Oil, is only five years old and small (assets of around Rs 5,000 crore with an "AA" rating), but the response to this float will be closely watched: It would be the first by a non-banking finance company (NBFC) after Mint Road upped the risk weights on bank exposures to them by 25 percentage points. The move by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has caught NBFCs off guard even though the issue had been flagged by Governor Shaktikanta Das with their corner-room occupants (and that of banks) in July and August 2023 - on consumer credit and the dependency on bank borrowings.
'Consumers are willing to increase travel spends by 20-30 per cent versus pre-pandemic.'
After years of being sequestered by the pandemic, some intrepid travellers are planning to settle their score with the novel coronavirus. With fewer or no travel curbs, they are eager to get back on the road, again. Hotels and tour operators, too, are eager to shed excess Covid baggage. And this year's Diwali promises to add that extra layer sparkle with the introduction of new flights.
Asian shares ended higher following a relief rally in global equities after centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French presidential election.
Automakers Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Kia reported robust growth in their vehicle dispatches in the domestic market for August buoyed by festive demand and easing of semiconductor shortage woes. Other manufacturers like Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda also reported growth in wholesales in August as compared with the same month last year. The country's largest automaker Maruti Suzuki India said its domestic passenger vehicle dispatches increased by 30 per cent to 134,166 units in August as compared with 103,187 units in the year-ago month.
These consistent performers are expected to maintain momentum.
Gold and diamond retail chain Malabar Gold & Diamonds will be investing Rs 1,600 crore in FY22 to launch 56 stores globally with 40 across India and 16 internationally in FY22 to further boost its retail presence across the globe. The move is expected to generate over 1,700 jobs. In India, the expansion strategy is centred in states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala. Internationally, the expansion will be in markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and UAE.
Leading carmakers Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors reported robust dispatches to dealers in May on the back of strong demand for passenger vehicles across regions, even as the global semiconductor shortage continued to impact production. Mahindra & Mahindra, Kia India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Honda Cars and Skoda also witnessed strong demand for their models last month. The month of May also witnessed Tata Motors race ahead of Hyundai in terms of domestic wholesales.
Online travel portals and airlines say the demand from companies is being led by essential services sectors like pharmaceutical, oil and gas, and power.
After losing two festive seasons to Covid-led restrictions, 2022 is seeing an uninhibited celebration of festivals. This is pushing up discretionary spend, which is attracting advertisers and brands, who are ready to capitalise on the momentum. The festive season has begun with Onam and Ganesh Chathurthi held earlier this month in Kerala and Maharashtra, respectively.
Colgate-Palmolive India is placing greater emphasis on freshness, whitening, therapeutic, and family toothpastes, as rivals such as Dabur and Patanjali dominate the growing naturals segment of the market. Once under 5 per cent of the Rs 10,000-crore domestic toothpaste market, the naturals segment, which includes ayurvedic and herbal variants, is now 25-30 per cent of the market, industry executives said. Growth rates of the naturals segment are estimated to be in the region of 8-9 per cent in volume terms. In value terms, the growth rate for naturals is around 10-12 per cent, sector experts said.
Auto majors, including Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai and Tata Motors, on Sunday reported high double-digit growth in their domestic passenger vehicle sales in July riding on stabilisation of macro-economic factors and better consumer sentiments. Similarly, Honda, Nissan, MG Motor and Skoda also reported healthy growth in their sales last month leveraging on improved market mood amid prevailing lower coronavirus infection rate, despite supply constraints of semi-conductors. The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India's (MSI) domestic sales increased by 39 per cent to 1,41,238 units last month as against 1,01,307 units in July 2020, the company said in a statement.
From Dabur to HUL, here are 10 stocks with significant rural exposure in the auto, agri-chemical and fast moving consumer goods sectors, which should see an uptick in sales growth.
Leading automakers Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors on Thursday reported robust sales in March as a shift towards personal mobility and pent up demand continued to help companies push dispatches to their respective retail partners. Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Honda Cars and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) also reported strong sales last month as compared to the year-ago period, when dispatches were adversely impacted due to the impending transition to BSVI from April 2020 and the nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India said its domestic sales stood at 1,49,518 units last month. The auto major had reported sales of 76,976 units in March 2020.
Revenue of the Bengaluru-based firm grew 1.7 per cent to Rs 17,078 crore in the June quarter as against Rs 16,782 crore in the year-ago period.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen seem to have dented the Congress's sway over the votes of minorities in Gujarat in the just concluded assembly polls, bringing down the main Opposition party's vote margin considerably in various seats across the state.
India's second-largest software services company Infosys on Wednesday posted 12 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,686 crore for March quarter 2021-22. The Bengaluru-based company had registered a net profit (after minority interest) of Rs 5,076 crore in the corresponding period previous year, according to a regulatory filing. Infosys' revenue grew 22.7 per cent to Rs 32,276 crore in the quarter from Rs 26,311 crore in the year-ago period, it added.
From rising prescriptions to the pharma sales force back on the field with full vigour and companies finally finding their feet with the digital marketing strategies - Indian drug makers have shown that medicine sales is certainly a sunshine sector.
Investors turn their attention to export-driven sectors.
In 2017, when Infosys announced that Salil Parekh would be its next chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD), very few in the industry or the analyst community doubted his ability to bring the company back to a healthy growth trajectory, improve morale within the company and, more importantly, win the promoters' trust and investor confidence. There were reasons for this confidence. He was not only the deputy CEO of the Paris-headquartered IT services major Capgemini, but also one of the only non-European faces on the executive board of the company.
Commercial banks in the country continued with their improving asset quality trend in the October-December 2021 quarter with slippages remaining under control coupled with healthy recoveries and upgradation of asset classification. The 28-listed banks reported improvement in bottom line with net profits rising 64.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 21.5 per cent sequentially. This is mostly on account of a fall in provisions and contingencies.
Without exception, the top four majors beat Street estimates across all parameters - revenues, profitability, or net profit growth. However, what stood out were the large deal wins reported by the big two, TCS and Infosys.
Record equity divestment by the Reliance Group in its telecom and retail businesses garnering around $23 billion revved up the deal street in 2020, which otherwise would have gone down as one of the dullest on record, and dealmakers are seeing sunnier days in 2021 given the large scope for consolidation in a slew of sectors ravaged by the pandemic. With Jio Platforms alone garnering over $16 billion (Rs 1,18,318 crore) by selling 25.24 per cent stake and Reliance Retail notching up $6.4 billion (Rs 47,265 crore) by divesting around 9 per cent shareholding, the deal street signed off with $85 billion in the deal kitty across 1,270 transactions. This is higher by about 10 per cent over 2019. What is significant is that over a third of the total deal value came from Reliance transactions, say investment bankers.
Sales during the quarter under review stood at Rs 9,357 crore, up 12.42 per cent, as against Rs 8,323 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal
In October, OnePlus said, it recorded Rs 500 crore of revenue in only the first two days of the festive sale on Amazon.in. The firm is looking at going beyond the metro cities by scaling up its offline stores to over 5,000 and setting up more than 100 'experience centres' in the top 50 cities by next year.
While growth metrics for Infosys was skewed to a single vertical and it is struggling to get a handle on costs, TCS has been able to manage growth and keep cost inflation under control.
Passenger vehicle market leaders Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai on Saturday reported a decline in wholesales in December 2021, although homegrown majors Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra reported growth, amid semiconductor shortage continuing to impact production. Other manufacturers Nissan and Skoda also reported an increase in December 2021 sales although Honda Cars India witnessed a decline last month. The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) reported a 4 per cent fall in wholesales to 153,149 units in December 2021 as against 160,226 units a year ago.
Johnson Controls-Hitachi, Voltas, Blue Star, Whirlpool recently recorded new 52-week highs but still haven't lost their steam
Price cuts post the November GST rate rationalisation helped improve volume growth for HUL, what pegged back sales for ITC is adverse social media rumours against Aashirvaad atta, its single-largest FMCG brand.
While no specific state-oriented sops were rolled out, a strong thread of political wellness ran through the Budget.
Whether it is DLF in the National Capital Region, or Godrej Properties and Oberoi Realty in Mumbai or Sunteck Realty, Prestige Estates and Sobha Realty in Bengaluru, most top players have launched or lined up a slew of new project launches during this season.
Rising prevalence of work-from-home and e-learning is driving sales of notebooks and tablets for most brands, but Apple's superior performance has more to do with its product quality.
'Even during the lockdown, we have received many online enquiries and subsequent bookings.'
The demand has gradually shifted from 16-tonners to 25-tonners and is further shifting in favour of 31-t and 37-t trucks.
The highest number of requests are in Karnataka (39.18 million) and Tamil Nadu (35.56 million).
'They can shift to dynamic asset allocation funds to automatically rebalance their equity exposure.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
