On Bajaj Finance

Morgan Stanley

• Maintained ‘Equalweight’ with a price target of Rs 2,300.
• September quarter’s net profit ahead of estimates led by lower provisions.
• NII and AUM growth in-line with estimates.

JPMorgan

• Maintained ‘Overweight’ with a price target of Rs 2,800.
• September quarter review: Another earnings beat driven by opex performance.
• Asset quality saw a marginal blip sequentially largely driven by the rural and LAP book.
• Loan growth momentum intact; Funding profile solid with growing deposit base.

Credit Suisse

• Maintained ‘Underperform’ with a price target of Rs 1,500.
• Experience on festive sales has been encouraging so far and Management expects similar growth.
• Management confident on liquidity situation and has been able to raise funds from banks and debt markets.
• Asset quality largely stable, except for some caution on two wheeler loans.

On ICICI Prudential

CLSA

• Maintained ‘Buy’; cut price target to Rs 490 from Rs 560.
• VNB growth led by margin expansion; Marketing spend lowers profit.
• Fall in persistency disappointing; Improvement will be key.
• Cut VNB estimates as weaker capital markets can affect the sales of ULIPS.

Macquarie

• Maintained ‘Outperform’ with a price target of Rs 462.
• September quarter’s net profit was in line; Dragged down by lower investment income and higher opex.
• Rising interest rates drag embedded value growth down.
• Recent volatility in equity markets an important monitorable given heavy reliance on ULIPs.

On HCL Tech

CLSA

• Maintained ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 1500.
• Revenues in-line; Organic growth momentum recovering in the second half.
• Margin gains are being traded for growth.
• Buy on returning organic growth, IP value and undemanding valuation.

Credit Suisse

• Maintained ‘Outperform’ with a price target of Rs 1,275.
• No surprises in September quarter; Growth guidance maintained as expected.
• Expect potential double-digit growth with steady margins.
• Valuations remain extremely attractive.

On Ambuja Cements

CLSA

• Maintained ‘Buy’; cut price target to Rs 255 from Rs 300.
• Weak September quarter results; Lowest unit Ebitda in over a decade.
• Slight miss in realisation along with higher costs led to margin pressure.
• Sector fortunes solely rest on ability to raise prices and the near-term outlook is uncertain.

Macquarie

• Maintained ‘Neutral’ with a price target of Rs 230.
• Strong volume fails to offset cost pressure.
• Weak rupee, strong crude oil and stubborn coal prices keeping cost pressures elevated.
• No capacity expansion to constrain volume growth.

On Adani Ports

CLSA

• Maintained ‘Buy’; cut price target to Rs 475 from Rs 490.
• Solid core led by coal and crude.
• Dollar debt impacted net profit by 40 percent on MTM of rupee depreciation.
• Adani Ports to deliver 16 percent growth in port Ebitda over FY18-21.

Credit Suisse

• Maintained ‘Outperform’ with a price target of Rs 480.
• September quarter was in-line led by volume growth.
• See several positives - contained capex, strong free cash flows, cargo diversification, etc.
• Positive outlook on container growth and capacity expansion; Valuations attractive.

Macquarie

• Upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’; cut price target to Rs 358 from Rs 385.
• Adjusted earnings better than consensus on a volume surprise.
• Expect growth to normalize in the second half as the base catches up.
• Upgrade on valuation; Concerns on financial health of group companies remain.

On TVS Motor

Credit Suisse

• Maintained ‘Underperform’; cut price target to Rs 420 from Rs 470.
• September quarter was ahead largely on operating leverage on staff costs.
• Gross margin expanded on better export realisation.
• Company remains hopeful of 10% growth for industry in the second half.

Macquarie

• Maintained ‘Underperform’ with a price target of Rs 450.
• Good September quarter performance, but already priced in.
• Market share improvement led by new model launches.
• Continue to believe there is downside risk to expectations of operating margin improvement.

More Brokerage Calls

CLSA on HDFC Life

• Maintained ‘Buy’; cut price target to Rs 510 from Rs 600.
• VNB growth led by premium and margin expansion.
• See scope to improve persistency, but potential slowdown in NBFCs could be a drag.
• Smooth transition under new CEO will be key, especially given its premium valuation.

Macquarie on Indiabulls Housing Finance

• Maintained ‘Outperform’ with a price target of Rs 1,400.
• Promoter over-collateralised his borrowings to maintain sufficient margin money.
• Growth/margins may come under pressure in near term due to liquidity concerns.
• See no risk of insolvency or widespread defaults by borrowers.

Morgan Stanley on RBL Bank

• Maintained ‘Underweight’ with a price target of Rs 450.
• September quarter’s net profit above estimates helped by good pre-provisioning operating profit growth.
• Loan growth strong and coverage ratio broadly stable.

• Nifty October futures closed trading at 10,148, with a premium of 1 point.
• Nifty October open interest (OI) down 24 percent; Nifty Bank October OI down 4 percent.
• Maximum open interest for October series call at 10,500 strike value call option (Open interest at 37.1 lakh shares).
• Maximum open interest for October series put at 10,000 strike value put option (Open interest at 36.7 lakh shares).

Bulk Deals

• Den Networks: MSD India Fund sells 16 lakh shares at Rs 66.29 apiece.

Trading Tweaks

• Bhansali Engineering Polymers circuit changed to 10 percent.
• Goa Carbon, Edelweiss Financial circuit changed to 5 percent.

Insider Trades

• Centrum promoters bought 66,000 shares from open market on Oct. 17.
• Kwality promoter sold 12.5 lakh shares on Oct. 17.

(As reported on Oct. 23)

HCL Tech (Q2, QoQ)

• Dollar revenue up 2.1 percent at $2,099 million.
• Profit up 5.7 percent at Rs 2,540 crore.
• EBIT up 8.7 percent at Rs 2,966 crore.
• EBIT margin at 19.8 percent versus 19.7 percent.

Adani Ports and SEZ (Q2, YoY)

• Revenue down 4 percent to Rs 2,608 crore.
• Net profit down 39 percent to Rs 606 crore.
• Ebitda down 9 percent to Rs 1,703 crore.
• Ebitda margin at 65.3 percent versus 68.8 percent.

Bajaj Finserv (Q2, YoY)

• Revenue up 17 percent to Rs 9,698 crore.
• Revenue from insurance business up 9.2 percent to Rs 4633 crore.
• Net profit up 1 percent to Rs 704 crore versus Rs 698 crore.

Rallis India (Q2, YoY)

• Revenue up 11.8 percent at Rs 613.2 crore.
• Net profit up 6.1 percent at Rs 87 crore.
• Ebitda up 1.8 percent at Rs 129.2 crore.
• Margin at 21.1 percent versus 23.1 percent.

Bajaj Corp (Q2, YoY)

• Revenue up 4.2 percent at Rs 212.7 crore.
• Net profit up 1.8 percent at Rs 51.6 crore.
• Ebitda up 3.6 percent at Rs 60.6 crore.
• Margin at 28.5 percent versus 28.6 percent.

Aksh OptiFibre (Q2, YoY)

• Total income up 22 percent to Rs 178 crore.
• Profit at Rs 17 crore versus Rs 5 crore.
• Ebitda up 147 percent to Rs 40 crore.
• Margin at 23 percent versus 11 percent.

HDFC Standard Life ( Q2, YoY)

• Net premium income up 26 percent to Rs 6,778 crore.
• Net profit up 20 percent to Rs 287 crore.
• 13th month persistency ratio down 84.8 percent versus 86.2 percent.
• 61st month persistency ratio up 52.4 percent versus 50.5 percent.

Sasken Technologies (Q2, QoQ)

• Revenue down 16 percent to Rs 113 crore.
• Net profit down 40 percent to Rs 16.9 crore.
• EBIT down 39 percent to Rs 12 crore.
• EBIT Margins at 10.4 percent versus 14.3 percent.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (Q2, YoY)

• Net premium income up 16 percent to Rs 7,601 crore.
• Net profit down 29 percent to Rs 301 crore.
• 13th month persistency ratio down 82.7 percent versus 83.5 percent.
• 61st month persistency ratio up 58.7 percent versus 54.4 percent.

Zensar Technologies (Q2, QoQ)

• Revenue up 7 percent to Rs 969 crore.
• Net profit up 14 percent to Rs 93 crore,
• EBIT up 2.4 percent to Rs 100.5 crore.
• EBIT margin at 10.4 percent versus 10.8 percent.

Tata Metaliks (Q2, YoY)

• Revenue up 21.5 percent to Rs 547 crore.
• Net profit up 42 percent to Rs 47.5 crore.
• Ebitda up 28 percent to Rs 85.7 crore.
• Margin at 15.7 percent.

Ambuja Cements (Q3, YoY)

• Revenue up 12.6 percent at Rs 2,613.9 crore.
• Net profit down 34.4 percent at Rs 178.6 crore.
• Ebitda up 1.1 percent at Rs 358.1 crore.
• Margin at 13.7 percent versus 15.3 percent.

Kotak Mahindra Bank

• Net interest income seen 17.4 percent higher at Rs 2,716 crore versus Rs 2,312.7 crore (YoY)
• Net profit seen 18 percent higher at Rs 1,173 crore versus Rs 994.3 crore (YoY)
• Net interest margin (NIM) seen stable at 4.3 percent (QoQ)

BloombergQuint estimates

Wipro

• IT service revenue seen up 0.4 percent at $2,034 million versus $2,026 million (QoQ)
• Revenue seen up 1.8 percent at Rs 14,489 crore versus Rs 14,231 crore (QoQ)
• EBIT seen up 1.7 percent at Rs 2,293 crore versus Rs 2,254 crore (QoQ)
• EBIT margins seen flat at 15.8 percent (QoQ)
• Profit seen down 3 percent at Rs 2,031 crore versus Rs 2,094 crore (QoQ)

Bloomberg estimates

Bajaj Auto

• Revenue seen at Rs 7,982 crore versus Rs 6,580 crore, up 21 percent (YoY)
• Ebitda seen at Rs 1,385 crore versus Rs 1,298 crore, up 6 percent (YoY)
• Profit seen at Rs 1,140 crore versus Rs 1,112 crore, up 2.5 percent (YoY)
• Margin seen at 17.4 percent versus 19.7 percent (YoY)

Bloomberg estimates

Bharti Infratel

• Revenue seen down 2.4 percent at Rs 3,587 crore versus Rs 3,674 crore (YoY)
• Ebitda seen down 5 percent at Rs 1,448 crore versus Rs 1,521 crore (YoY)
• Ebitda margin seen at 40.4 percent versus 41.4 percent (YoY)
• Net profit seen down 5.2 percent at Rs 605 crore versus Rs 638 crore (YoY)

Bloomberg estimates

Other Earnings To Watch

• Bharat Financial Inclusion
• Everest Industries
• Hexaware Technologies
• IDFC Bank
• Jubilant Foodworks
• Jyothy Laboratories
• Interglobe Aviation
• KPIT Technologies
• L&T Finance Holdings
• Larsen & Toubro Infotech
• Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services
• Radico Khaitan
• Security And Intelligence Services (India)
• SKF India
• Sterlite Technologies
• Sundaram-Clayton
• Syngene International
• Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers
• TTK Prestige
• International Paper APPM