MARKETS LIVE: Indices trade higher, Nifty nears 10,400 mark on Asian cues

From ICICI Prudential MF to SBI MF, fund houses see assets swell in 2017-18 Assets under management (AUM) of mutual funds (MFs) rose 26 per cent year-on-year to Rs 23 trillion in the recently-concluded fiscal year 2017-18. The top three fund houses — ICIC Prudential MF, HDFC MF and Aditya Birla Sun Life MF — witnessed their assets grow in line with the industry.   Among the top five players, Reliance Nippon MF underperformed, while SBI MF reported the highest growth, data provided by industry body Association of Mutual Funds show. Fund houses that saw the highest growth in AUM were Motilal Oswal MF and Mirae Asset MF. READ MORE Titan Company shares hit new high on good growth in jewellery in Q4FY18 Shares of Titan Company hit a new high of Rs 970 per share, up 3.3% on the BSE after the company said that its jewelry segment saw mid-teen retail sales growth during the quarter ended March 2018 (Q4FY18). The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 963 recorded on March 28, 2018 on the BSE in intra-day trade. READ MORE Reliance Securities on HeidelbergCement India HeidelbergCement India (HCIL) gained over 5% in Friday’s range bound market on the expectation of healthy 4QFY18 numbers mainly to be aided by healthy volume in Central markets.   Our channel check suggests that the Central region is likely to see realizations improvement of ~5% YoY and ~4% QoQ in 4QFY18. Further, with the resolution of sand mining issues in Uttar Pradesh, demand in central region has witnessed a firm recovery aiding companies to witness healthy sales volume.   Further, with no meaningful capacity addition coming in Central region in next 2-3 years except UltraTech and JK Cement, we believe HCIL would hit a sweet spot to improve its financials in ensuing years, on the back of healthy demand outlook owing to favourable monsoon, likely uptick in government spending in UP & MP and resolution of sand mining issues.   Further, likely de-leveraging of balance-sheet along with better operating performance is expected to result in improvement in return ratios. ​​We maintain our fundamental BUY recommendation on the stock with a Target Price of Rs205. Reliance Securities on H.G. Infra H.G. Infra (HGI) has been gaining a healthy traction for last two years on​ the backdrop of consistent order book addition and improving execution expertise. While current order book of Rs50.6bn (4.8x FY17 revenue) provides robust growth visibility, HGI is expected to add more orders to its kitty mainly led by improvement in financial prequalification and enormous opportunity in Roads & Highway segment.   We expect HGI’s revenue and earnings to clock 31% and 46% CAGR, respectively through FY17-FY20E. Further, current valuations at 18.4x ​​/ 13.7x EPS of FY19E / FY20E, respectively, look attractive considering less than 1x PEG ratio and strong return ratios. ​​We maintain our fundamental BUY rating on the stock with a Target Price of Rs 375 MARKET COMMENT Technical Outlook: Nifty 50 after testing 200DMA has swiftly bounced back. It has also penetrated downward sloping trend line indicating that market is rally ready. It is likely that Nifty50 may slightly dip before moving upwards. On the higher side Nifty50 can touch 10600 in the short time wherein some amount of profit booking can be expected. On a worst case scenario prices can touch 10,000 levels, which should act as stop loss for positional traders. Buy on dips should be the strategy for traders. (Source: Samco Securities) Market Snapshot (Image source: NSE)