MARKETS: Metal, realty stocks shine in choppy trade; Sensex ends 163 pts up

All that happened in the markets today

3:45 PM

Market Statistics

3:42 PM

Top Drag :: Nifty FMCG index settles nearly a per cent lower

3:41 PM

Top Gainer :: Nifty Realty index outperforms markets

3:39 PM

Sectoral trends at Close

3:37 PM

Sensex Heatmap at Close

3:36 PM

Closing Bell

>> At close, the benchmark indices settled higher for the fourth consecutive session. The S&P BSE Sensex was at 40,707 levels, up 163 points or 0.4 per cent with PowerGrid, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Steel ending the day as top gainers on the 30-share index. IT counters such as TCS and HCL, on the other hand, ended as top drags. 

 

>> NSE's Nifty50, on the other hand, ended at 11,938 levels, up 41 points or 0.38 per cent.

3:28 PM

UltraTech Cement trades firm on strong operational performance in Q2

UltraTech’s consolidated net profit more than doubled at Rs 1,234 crore in Q2FY21, as against Rs 579 crore in Q2FY20. Net sales however, grew a modest 1 per cent to Rs 10,231 crore from Rs 9,486 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin improved to 27.7 per cent from 21.8 per cent. READ MORE

3:22 PM

BUZZING STOCK:: Bharti Airtel at day's high, up 3%

3:18 PM

MARKET UPDATE:: Sensex regains momentum

3:10 PM

Cabinet decisions :: Cabinet approves Rs 3,737 cr bonus for Govt staffers

3:03 PM

NEWS ALERT :: Govt working on next set of stimulus measures, says DEA Secy Tarun Bajaj

3:01 PM

Anand Rathi on Federal Bank

Given the bank’s strong capitalisation, coverage and liquidity than its regional peers, it is better placed to withstand Covid’19-related stresses. However, with expected higher slippages, higher credit costs would keep the bank’s earnings weak in the medium term. We estimate a 0.4% RoA for FY21, and 0.9% for FY22.

 

Our Oct’21 sum-of-parts target price (0.7x FY22e book value, Rs8 a share for Fedfina and IDBI-Federal Life) works out to Rs60 a share. Risk: Lumpy slippages from the corporate book.

3:00 PM

Jefferies on telecom sector

During 2QFY21, we expect Bharti Airtel's India mobile revenues to grow 3% QoQ on the back of better offline retail sales and better 4G adds, with slight margin expansion. While we expect Bharti Infratel's core revenues to remain muted, we think EBITDA will grow 4% QoQ due to a pick-up in energy margins. Timing of the next tariff hikes will be key for Bharti Airtel. Updates on merger and tenancy outlook will be key for Bharti Infratel.

3:00 PM

Jefferies on OMCs

In 2QFY21, we expect HPCL to report the strongest marketing performance among the OMCs on the back of lower decline in marketing volume and sharply higher marketing margins y/y. IOCL's profitability should show the steepest jump boosted by inventory gains (inventory loss in base qtr). Recovery in refining margins from decade lows along with sustainability of strong marketing margins are key to stock price recovery from cyclical lows.

2:59 PM

Elara Capital on HUL

We cut our earnings by 16% for FY21E, 13% for FY22E and 13% for FY23E, led by gross margin contraction of 157bp in FY21E. We expect sales growth to accelerate from 3-5% to 9% in FY22E, led by recovery in discretionary, OOH-related products (20% of sales) and distribution growth of Horlicks and Boost portfolio of ~20% YoY that will be executed in FY22 once systems are integrated. We downgrade to Reduce from Accumulate with a lower TP of INR 2,161 (down 9.5%) on 50x (unchanged) Q2FY23E EPS of Rs 43.

2:58 PM

Centrum on Britannia’s Q2FY21

Britannia’s Q2FY21 revenues miss expectations, while margins surprise. Revenue/ EBITDA/ PAT grew 12.1%/ 37.2%/ 23.0% led by continuing tailwinds from in-home consumption portfolio. After a stellar reactive execution in Q1, the company has shifted its focus back to its strategic planks (1) rural distribution (2) innovation (3) cost cutting efforts and (4) adjacent business helped to deliver profitable growth. Its emphasis on rural markets helped in gaining market share in the Hindi speaking belt further.

On the margin front the company delivered all time high gross margin at 43.3% (+283bps), while the EBITDA Margin expansion was even higher at 361bps (19.8%) led by sustaining cost efficiencies from JQ’20 and lower ad spends.  We maintain our estimates and retain Buy rating with DCF-based target price of Rs4,273 (implying 51x FY22E EPS).

2:57 PM

YES Securities on Bajaj Finance Q2FY21 nos

Operational results being better than expectations and credit cost moving in-line imply that earnings estimates may remain unchanged or marginal revised higher. We retain positive stance and believe that Management commentary on growth rebound would be most critical for incremental valuation re-rating

2:52 PM

Nestle shrugs off Covid-19 impact thanks to pet food and health nutrition

Nestle raised its guidance for 2020 organic sales growth to around 3% after beating third-quarter expectations on Wednesday with 4.9% growth driven by strong demand for pet food, coffee and health products.

 

The world's biggest food group has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic better than some peers as its focus on high-growth categories helped offset a slump in food sales to restaurants and cafes. READ MORE

2:44 PM

A missed opportunity: ITC could build India's digital, agri-business model

Formerly known as Imperial Tobacco of India, later renamed India Tobacco Company, and finally truncated to just ITC, the 110-year-old conglomerate is 29.4% owned by British American Tobacco Plc. About 28.5% is controlled by various Indian state-run insurance companies and a government-controlled bad bank. READ MORE

2:35 PM

No merit in relaxing 10% cap on single stock investment: Sebi chief

“The 10 per cent cap is meant for diversification cap. Just because some scrip is outperforming doesn’t mean you raise the ceiling. That will be self re enforcing that a scrip has moved up and you are allowing higher investment in the same scrip. That doesn’t sound very logical. For the sake of diversification, the 10 per cent ceiling is something which stays,” said Ajay Tyagi, chairman, Sebi while addressing the media at a market summit organized by industry body CII. READ MORE

2:29 PM

NEWS ALERT :: Colgate declares dividend of Rs 18/share

2:25 PM

Sept Quarter Result | Colgate Palmolive's net profit comes in at Rs 274.2 crore

>> Revenue at Rs 1,286 crore

>> EBITDA at Rs 409 crore

2:24 PM

Sept Quarter Result | UltraTech Cement posts profit of Rs 1,235 crore

>> Consolidated revenue at Rs 10,354 crore

>> Consolidated EBITDA at Rs 2,695 crore

>> EBITDA margin at 26%

2:10 PM

Newgen Software zooms 20% on robust September quarter results

In Q2FY21, the company’s consolidated net profit jumped seven-fold at Rs 29. 2 crore, despite reporting flat operational revenue at Rs 155 crore over the previous year quarter. The IT consulting & software company had profit of Rs 4.2 crore in Q2FY20. READ MORE

2:03 PM

Rupee Closing

Rupee ends weaker at 73.58 per US dollar vs Tuesday's close of 73.46/$

2:00 PM

BROKERAGE VIEW :: Axis Securities on HUL

CMP: Rs 2,174 | Target price: Rs 2,455 | Reco: Buy

Overall Q2FY21 performance was modest beat vs our estimate on the back of a healthy recovery seen in discretionary portfolio led by Hair, Oral and essentials like Tea and Coffee which grew in double digits. Further with progressive easing of lockdown ahead of the festive season and increasing movement of people we expect the OOH business growth traction to improve sequentially thus driving growth in near term. From a medium term perspective we believe, HUVR has the right growth matrix like 1) broad based portfolio straddling across price-value matrix, 2) focus on cost savings 3) GSK-CH integration led growth and 4) execution prowess vs peers. We revise rating to BUY (earlier HOLD) and value the stock at 53x FY23E EPS.

1:55 PM

BROKERAGE VIEW :: Axis Securities on Britannia

CMP: Rs 3,552 | Target price: Rs 4,170 | Reco: Buy 

Growth momentum expected to moderate from a near term perspective with easing of lockdown restriction and rising opportunities for consumers to order online. However, benign RM prices could keep GM steady in range of 41-41.5% in our view while EBITDA Margins could revert to its band of 18-19% on the back of normalizing A&P spends.We have marginally tweaked our estimates for FY21/22 given the modest growth commentary. Retain BUY with revised TP of Rs. 4,170 (Rs. 4,300 earlier) as we value the stock at 50x its FY22E EPS. Key downside risks to our estimates – faster adoption of out-of- home consumption and upside risk is onset of COVID-19 second wave.

1:46 PM

Fall from intra-day high today

COMPANY	DAY'S HIGH(RS)	DAY'S LOW(RS)	FALL(%)
JUST DIAL	632.50	566.25	-9.25
AMBER ENTERP.	2539.85	2349.00	-7.34
RAJESH EXPORTS	475.00	448.45	-5.59
MINDTREE	1467.00	1382.65	-5.18

1:39 PM

MARKET CHECK

1:31 PM

Sept Quarter Result | Bajaj Finance

>> Net profit at Rs 965 crore

>> NII at Rs 4,165 crore

>> Gross NPA at 1.03%