Nomura initiates a 'buy' call on Oberoi Realty Ltd., stating that the company is poised for aggressive business development.
Morgan Stanley shares outlook on the global gas space, and Citi offers its take on the Indian cement industry. Morgan Stanley also lists the sectors it is overweight on as per equity strategy.
NDTV Profit tracks what the brokerages are putting out on stocks and sectors. Here are all the top calls from analysts you need to know about on Wednesday.
Citi On Cement Industry
Industry sources say cement makers are attempting price hikes across most regions.
Some sources indicate a 3-7% or Rs 10-20 per bag price hike.
Expect prices to move up by 3-4% after the second quarter.
Some sources indicate only marginal price hike; with potential for more.
Note that price hike attempts in the South have not yet been made.
Believes that large quantum price hike is unlikely to sustain.
Citi's Cement Recommendations:
Buy: UltraTech Cement, ACC, Ramco Cement, Shree Cement, Dalmia Bharat, JK Cement, Grasim Industries.
Neutral: Ambuja Cements.
Sell: Nuvuco Vistas Corp.
Investec On JSW Infrastructure
Initiated a 'buy' rating on the stock for Rs 370, implying a potential upside of 17%.
On track to deliver over 20% revenue per Ebitda compound annual growth rate over for the next five fiscals.
Second largest port player handling 7% of India's port volumes.
Third-party cargo and volume ramp-up over newly acquired terminals to drive growth.
JSW Steel and JSW Infra planned capacity additions to boost volumes till fiscal 2030.
Company to be key beneficiary of government's port privatisation plan.
Citi On Cipla
Retained 'buy' with target price of Rs 1,800, indicating an upside potential of 17%.
Earnings per share ratio is reduced by 3-6% over the next two fiscals due to delayed recovery in India, and added US competition.
PE multiple revised to 32x (from 34x), reflecting softer India growth.
Nomura On Oberoi Realty
Initiated coverage with a 'buy,' with a target price of Rs 2,500 on the stock, indicating a potential upside of 21%.
Pre-sales should record a ~40% compound annual growth rate in fiscal 2024 to 2027.
Poised for aggressive business development and has relatively low net debt/equity of 0.02x.
Has Rs 8,500 crore in ready inventory to be sold over the next 2-3 years.
Cumulative annuity, hotel revenue expected to record 35% CAGR over fiscals 2024 to 2027.
Strong cash generation and plans to pursue growth by raising funds of up to Rs 6,000 crore.
Jefferies On Supreme Industries
Maintain Buy, with a target price of Rs 6,450, implying a potential 35% upside.
Management expects healthy volume recovery of 20%+ in the second half of the fiscal 2025.
Further market share gains are expected due to higher capacity growth compared to peers.
Estimate the financial year 2024-27 earnings per share compound annual growth rate at over 22%.
Buy on weakness; the company is a good play on housing, capital expenditure, infrastructure, and agricultural demand.
Company is among top small and mid-cap picks, as its inherent business is strong.
Key risks: demand slowdown and sharp volatility in polyvinyl chloride prices.
Morgan Stanley On Global Gas & LNG
Expect a new wave of liquefied natural gas supply growth to begin in 2025 at a measured pace.
Project delays and demand strength may push the oversupply risk beyond the second half of the calendar year 2027-28.
Anticipate 175 million tonnes per annum of global LNG capacity additions over 2024-30.
Expect 23 MTPA of LNG supply to be added in 2025-26.
Global demand (excluding Europe) is expected to grow more in 2024 compared to the prior three years.
Forecasts an 8% LNG demand compound annual growth rate over 2025-28.
Naukri Jobspeak On InfoEdge
Overall hiring trend is down 11% quarter-on-quarter but up 2% year-on-year.
The QoQ downtrend is largely due to the festive period.
YoY hiring picked up in Oil & Gas (+14%), Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) (+6%), and Global Capability Centres (GCCs) (+4%).
Hiring in Banking dropped by 14% and in Information Technology by 7% YoY.
Non-IT sectors emerged as hotspots for fresher hiring.
Jefferies On Insurance
Max Financial Services stands to gain more from amendments to insurance laws.
Some Public Sector Undertaking banks can monetise their stakes due to the increase in the Foreign Direct Investment limit.
The proposal to allow mergers with non-insurers is positive for Max Financial Services.
Max Life may benefit from the switch to a composite license.
Life Insurance Corporation and ICICI Prudential Life have a lower share of bancassurance, while SBI Life has the highest.
Morgan Stanley On Equity Strategy
The proprietary MNC sentiment index has recovered from a 3-year low.
Higher sentiment is positive for India's capital expenditure cycle.
Relative to China, the index has moved higher for the 13th consecutive quarter.
Strong sentiment is likely to lead to higher investments and increased corporate profits.
Maintain an overweight position on Industrials, Financials, Consumer Discretionary, and Technology.
Jefferies On GAIL
Jefferies maintains a buy rating on GAIL (India) and cuts the target price to Rs 235 from Rs 240 earlier, reflecting an 18% upside.
The recent 17% stock correction makes the risk-reward ratio favorable.
A favorable tariff hike by the end of the fiscal year 2025 is expected to increase Ebitda by 6% for the fiscals 2026-27.
The company is a key beneficiary if natural gas is included under the Goods and Services Tax.
Gas prices remain favorable for the company's gas trading profitability in the second half of fiscal 2025.
A 7% quarter-on-quarter rise in liquefied petroleum gas prices in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 so far is supportive for LPG profitability.
The company is set to gain transmission market share after commissioning the new pipeline in fiscal year 2026.
HSBC On India Economies
Growth normalising to more-sustainable but still-strong levels.
Inflation elevated, but expect it to fall, dip below 5% by March.
Shallow repo rate cutting cycle may start in February.
Citi Research On India Banks And NBFCs
A potential Cash Reserve Ratio cut could be favourable for HDFC Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Federal Bank, and Bank of Baroda.
A 50 basis point repo rate cut suggests a higher impact for Federal Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank.
The adverse impact is low, at less than 1%, for IDFC Bank and AU Small Finance Bank.
The rate cut benefit will manifest sooner for LIC Housing Finance, Bajaj Finance Ltd., L&T Finance Ltd., and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd.
Goldman Sachs On Cement Industry
Buy recommendation on UltraTech Cement.
Neutral stance on Shree Cement, Dalmia Bharat, and Ambuja Cements.
Sell recommendation on ACC.
Fiscal 2025 is expected to be one of the weakest years for profitability.
Fiscal 2026 is expected to be only slightly better compared to fiscal 2025.
The continuation of the volume share fight in 2025 is expected to improve pricing.
Demand is expected to recover to mid-to-high single digits from hereon.
Industry capacity utilisations are expected to remain flat due to substantial capacity additions.
Large players are likely to sustain premium valuations through market share consolidation and higher capacity.
CLSA On Zomato
Maintained an 'outperform' rating with a price target of Rs 370, reflecting a 32% upside.
Swiggy's results show that the gap with Zomato has stopped widening, but it still remains.
Swiggy's food delivery segment shows a quarter-on-quarter catch-up, but year-on-year growth still lags.
Swiggy guides for adjusted Ebitda breakeven to occur two years behind Zomato.
Remains positive on Zomato's food delivery and quick commerce segments.
ICICI Securities On Defence
The Defence Acquisition Council approving acceptance of necessity worth Rs 21,800 crore is viewed as positive, especially after the ordering slowdown.
Bharat Electronics is expected to benefit the most due to the direct benefit from the Electronic Warfare Suite.
Astra Microwave is likely to benefit from the EWS package.
PTC Industries is expected to benefit from the execution of its Memorandum of Understanding with Hindustan Aeronautics.
HAL is set to benefit from the procurement of six Advanced Light Helicopters.
Immediate benefits from the current AoNs are not expected.
The process from AoN to order conversion can take at least two years.
The recently accorded AoN is one of the smaller ones.
AoNs for fiscal 2025 have amounted to Rs 1,66,500 crore so far, compared to Rs 3,61,000 crore in fiscal 2024.
Orders for 12 Su-30MKI aircraft and Pinaka are expected in the next 3–4 months.
Key Picks in the Defence Sector:
Solar Industries: Maintained 'buy' with target price at Rs 13,250 (+25.3% upside).
Azad Engineering: Maintained 'buy' with a target price of Rs 2,450 (+38.4% upside).
PTC Industries: Has a 'buy' rating with a target price of Rs 20,070 (+68.6% upside).
Bharat Electronics: Maintained 'buy' with a target price of Rs 350 (+10.8% upside).
UBS On Bajaj Auto
Retained 'sell' rating with a target price of Rs 7,900, indicating a downside of 12%.
Bajaj Auto has cut the price of the Freedom 125 model.
The price cut includes Rs 5,000 on the entry-level variant and Rs 10,000 on the mid-variant.
These price cuts come just five months after the launch.
Since launch, Bajaj has dispatched over 80,000 units to dealers, but VAHAN retail sales stood at only 34,000 units.
Pulsar variants have also seen price cuts post-Diwali.
There is a potential downside risk to street estimates.
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