MarketBuzz
1241: Marketbuzz Podcast with Hormaz Fatakia: What keeps ICICI Bank, HCLTech and IREDA in focus?
Good morning and welcome to CNBC TV18's market buzz podcast. I am Harmas Patakya. Well, another truncated week beckons us, but we are back after the weekend and so much has transpired over this weekend that the next six minutes will have you hooked. But before we go any further, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke exclusively to News 18 and you can read about all of his comments on various issues on cnbctv18.com and also catch excerpts of that conversation on cnbctv18 all through the day. But back to the markets and earnings season continues as it does. And just as we saw on Friday, there are two stocks that may possibly pull the nifty to either ends on Friday. It was Tech Mahindra and Bajaj finance. But in today's session, first up is ICICI Bank, where the net profit and net interest income were above expectations, while asset quality also improved from the last quarter. The management also made comments with regards to the IT infrastructure due to the ongoing issues with Kotak Mahindra Bank. And they said that they are in constant talks with the Reserve Bank of India and they keep getting periodic feedback from the regulator as well. The management also expects the net interest margins to remain range bound unless there is a change in repurates from the Reserve Bank of India. There is another news flow related to ICICI Bank, but we'll get to that in just a bit. The other stock though on the other extreme is HCL Tech. That reported a disappointing quarter and its guidance was equally disappointing. The abit margins for the quarter fell over 200 basis points and were also below expectations. The management expects revenue growth of 3-5% in FY25, while the street was expecting the guidance to be 5-7% for the new financial year. Now this is due to two factors. One being that there was a large project that moved offshore while the other is the company's exit from a state street BPO joint venture. Now Maruti's results were a mixed bag and that is because profits may have grown nearly 50% from last year but that was below expectations due to higher tax spend and also because of advertising expenses. The good part though is that they have declared a 125 rupee dividend and that will keep the stock some support. That the abit margins also for Maruti they may have gone up by 170 basis points from last year but they ended up being below expectations. Now there is a long list of banks and NBFCs that reported results after market hours on Friday and over the weekend and those include the like of Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, RBL Bank, there is also Uthkar small finance bank, IDFC first bank, LNP finance, SBFC finance and you can read about all of these earnings on cnbctv18.com. Now besides the banking names there were also stocks like VST industries, SBI life, SBI cards, Sanghi industries which also reported results and will react to the same this morning. Speaking of VST industries the company announced a dividend of a hundred and fifty rupees a share which would fetch Radhakesh and Damani well over 75 crore rupees in dividend payouts. Now ultra tech is the only nifty constituent that will be reporting results today. While among the broader market names we have the likes of PNB housing, Punevala Fin Corp, KPIT tech, Tara chemicals and Trent among a lot of other broader market names that will be reporting results today. We spoke about ICICI Bank. The other news besides earnings is the fact that they have informed the exchanges that they have received an email from the NCLT that is the national company law tribunal that certain shareholders have filed an application before the court with regards to the delisting of ICICI securities and the bank has said that they will make appropriate representations with regards to this application in the future. Now aside of earnings Apollo hospitals will also be in focus as its unit Apollo health co will be raising a sum of 2,475 crore rupees or 300 million dollars from private equity firm Advent. It also plans to merge its promoter owned wholesale pharmaceutical business that is KIMED over the next 24 to 30 months. Now this merger is likely to be APS accredited for Apollo from the first day itself. Now the deal will involve KIMED buying out multiple joint venture partners that it has and Apollo out of the funds raised 890 crores will be used to pair a debt which currently stands at around 1290 crores and another 860 crores will be used as growth capital for Apollo health co. Also keep an eye out on irradia which has been granted on Navratana status by the Department of Public Enterprise. The management will be joining us on CNBC TV18 today at 1045 AM and you may want to tune in to that conversation. Ajanta Pharma's board will meet on the 2nd of May to consider a buyback of equity shares. Now the company had last year conducted a buyback worth over 300 crores and this will be the 4th share buyback for Ajanta Pharma in as many years. So back to the markets then and the NFTI snapped a 5 day winning streak on Friday but it did manage to end the week higher. Now 20 to 600 is the latest hurdle for the NFTI as both Thursday and Friday's high for the index were at similar levels but the index could not sustain above those levels. In fact Friday's resistance eventually led to some selling pressure and the index even closed below the 22,500 mark. The handover from Wall Street is also positive but uncertain and all eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve on the 30th of April and 1st of May when the FOMC meets and announces its interest rate decision. While a rate cut is all but off the table this time around the question is will the Fed cut rates in 2024 if so then how many times and if not then when will the rate cutting cycle begin? Asian markets have also opened positively ahead of the economic data emerging from China and Japan. The gift NFTI as we speak is indicating a 100 point uptick so a gap up start is likely for our own markets so we are likely to return to winning ways after Friday's slight correction. That's all for today, we wish you a happy trading day and it promises to be an action-packed one. So stay tuned to CNBCTV18 and CNBCTV18.com for all the sharpest market insights. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]