ITC recently launched a Vivel fairness cream in kerala. This segment in personal care is growing at 15% with HUL being the market leader. It is possible the ITC might intensify competition in the 1700 cr. industry. Also with the hotel business reviving and cigarette business showing resilience to price hikes/ tax hikes ITC might be able to keep its growth momentum on track. The stock may be researched further for investment.
Reliance Industries with announcements of increased refining capacities to 700 kbpd. Also the announcement of increasing the retail arm revenues to 10 billion USD from 1 billion USD has been positive. It has also said it would enter into coal, hydro and nuclear based power and power distribution. It shall also have a focus on solar power generation. The company also plans to increase its petrochemical capacities providing paraffin for the detergent market and also into elastomers.
Tata motors has been reporting high growth in the sales. The sales last month had jumped by 72% to 80000 YOY. The cumulative sales have also jumped to 160000 which is 52% higher than the last year same period. Jaguar and landrover have reported a growth of 72%. land Rover grew by 93% and Jaguar by 36%. land rover has been doing extremely well with it reporting a cumulative growth of 91%. Given higher margins for Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles tata motors seems to be on a recovery - growth path. One may research the stock further for investment purpose.
Recently HCL won 2 order , 1 from Merck (500 million USD) and other from SGX (110 m USD). These projects have a focus on Infrastructure management. Merck deal is across the value chain from providing IT solution, engineering, Infrastructure Management and knowledge process outsourcing. HCL has recently set up a multilingual process development office in Brazil to become stronger in the Infrastructure management space. It is expected the companies would strongly want to reduce their infrastructure management costs in the coming years and HCL being one of the biggest players in this domain stands to gain.
Edelweiss has announced a stock split of 1:5 and a bonus of 1:1. This stock might see a lot of activity today.
Kotak Mahindra Bank: ING would be selling 3% stake in the Bank. By this transaction ING would get Rs. 800 cr. which would be used the expand the operations in India. Also the 3% stake sale might push the Kotak prices down. This might be used as an opportunity to buy into the stock.
IDFC has bagged Infrastructure non banking company status. They would be able to lower the borrowing cost.The company will benefit because of huge infrastructure spending in the country. It is a well established infra financing company. The company has also diversified its risk by going in to MFs.
GAIL : At its current price of Rs 472, the stock has gained almost 70 per cent over one year with PE of 18. There might be still a scope for upside, primarily due to the company's strong positioning, good performance and massive expansion plans in the burgeoning Indian gas market, where demand growth outpaces rapid growth in supplies. With rise in prices and better marketing margins also with expansion plans in other major segments such as petrochemicals lend confidence its prospects. Success in exploration efforts and removal of subsidy overhang, if they materialise, may further improve returns.
Opportunities, risksBig wins in its exploration and production efforts could integrate the company across the energy value-chain and provide a significant upside trigger for the stock. This will also mitigate risks if expected gas volumes from other sources do not meet expectations. Lack of success, however, will result in an increase in write-off of exploration expenses and could prove to be a drag.
On the other hand, subsidy overhang continues to be a drag and a major risk factor for the company. GAIL's share (around Rs. 1,320 crore) of the subsidy burden in FY-10 on transport fuels accounted for more than 20 per cent of its operating profits for the year. The Kirit Parikh committee recommendations on fuel price deregulation include exempting GAIL altogether from the subsidy sharing mechanism. The government move of more than doubling APM gas prices in May sent positive signals on its intent on fuel price deregulation.
However, it remains to be seen whether the powers-that-be will implement the recommendations, especially in the current high inflation environment. Any positive move on this front could provide another positive trigger for the stock. A business-as-usual scenario could depress the stock's prospects, especially in a regime of high crude prices and inflating subsidy bills.
NTPC: It is a stock with limited downside risk. But there is no immediate trigger for an upside. The company has acquired mines in Australia and diversified into nuclear power gen. It is for long term investors.Reliance Communication: The industry is going through a bad patch because of huge outflow on account of the 3G and BWA auction. The average revenue per customer has been falling. The company is planning a stake sale that will de-leverage the balance sheet.
Power Grid: The company’s results have been disappointing. But the stock might rise if the proposed expansion goes through which will take 2-3 years time. The company has a monopoly when it comes to power transmission in India. Hold with a target of 140.
Idea: The company has shown good performance and a healthy growth trend despite the telecom industry being under a lot of pressure. It is quoting at an attractive multiple of 13. It can touch 91 levels.