Tale of the Tape 

Good evening everyone! Markets were in snooze mode. 😴

Nifty and Sensex ended barely higher as investors had baked in a lack of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Midcaps rose +0.5% while Smallcaps closed flat. The advance-decline ratio was evenly split. ✌️

Most sectors ended in the green. Auto (+1.1%) and Metals (+1.1%) saw strong buying. Banks (-0.3%) and Real Estate (-0.1%) witnessed minor cuts. 💸

Kotak Mahindra Bank was the top Nifty loser after its joint MD resigned abruptly. Read our top story below on the challenges ahead. 🚨

Indiamart Intermesh (+8%) had a solid Q4 show. Dabur India (+4%) reported promising Q4 numbers. More details below. 📊

Godrej Industries, REC and HPCL all saw big movements today. Check out their charts below to find out why. 🚀

MOIL jumped +9% after hiking the prices of different manganese ores. 🤑

April auto sales. Bajaj Auto was up +2% after reporting a 17% YoY bump. M&M (+2%) hit a 52-week-high after recording a 13% YoY sales increase. 🏍️

Jindal Stainless was up +4% after announcing a Rs 5,400 cr investment for acquisitions & capacity expansion. 🏭

Ashok Leyland (+4%) gained after a double upgrade by DAM Capital; the brokerage sees a +22% upside from current levels. 💰

BSE (+2%) gained after hiking transaction charges on key options contracts to blunt the SEBI regulatory fee blow. 🎰

ICICI Bank (-1%) was in focus after the lender denied reports claiming its CEO Sandeep Bakshi wants to quit. 😇

Here are the closing prints: 

Stock
Manian No Longer “Bros” With Kotak

Kotak Mahindra Bank’s house is on fire! ICYMI - the latest flames come from its joint MD KVS Manian abruptly resigning. This comes a week after the RBI banned the lender from onboarding new customers through its digital biz and from issuing new credit cards. Not too much of a surprise the stock is down -11% over the last month. 📉

Let’s start with Manian hitting the exit door. Some social media experts who will tell you this news was expected. They are only half-right. It’s true that Manian probably wanted the CEO position after Uday Kotak stepped down last September. It’s also true that it would have been natural for him to resign after losing out to current CEO Ashok Vaswani. 🙈

But the thing is, everyone figured they solved this issue by promoting Manian to joint managing director just TWO months ago. It looked like a win-win solution: Manian gets a new title and the bank gets to keep a veteran exec around to help Vaswani (an outsider) in the first year of his tenure. So yes, this resignation does upset Kotak Mahindra Bank’s transition plan. 🚨

Vaswani and the bank have other things to worry about though. They need to deal with the RBI’s ban, which FYI is a much bigger deal than you might think. Kotak Mahindra Bank has always been a conservative lender, courtesy of Uday Kotak. They don’t aggressively jump at new business or open as many branches as ICICI or HDFC. That’s why its digital banking biz, headed by Uday’s son Jay Kotak, was SO important. With the RBI ban, it pretty much loses its only growth lever. 😣

At times like this, it would’ve been nice to have an old hand like Manian around. Alas, that’s not meant to be. FYI - Nuvama has downgraded the stock and sees another -2% downside. They say senior exits and the RBI ban will have hurt profitability over the next 18 months. 👎

Specials

5 Stocks Under Rs 500 - By SEBI RAs

In this week’s video, we will walk through the Top 5 stocks to buy under Rs 500 recommended by SEBI RAs on Stocktwits.

In the video, we’ll break down the recommendations by SEBI RAs, covering both fundamental and technical analysis.

Earnings

Earnings Roundup

Dabur India (+4%) Q4 results were slightly below Street estimates. Domestic volumes grew by 4.2% YoY vs estimates of 3%-4%. FYI - the company saw key market share gains across non-food verticals. Fun fact: its oral care market share now stands at 52%, meaning 1 in 2 Indian households buy Dabur for their oral care needs. A stronger focus on more premium products also helped boost margins and the bottomline.

Here is its Q4 report card:

• Revenue: Rs 2,815 cr; +5% YoY (vs Est: Rs 2,835 cr)

• EBITDA: Rs 467 cr; +14% YoY

• EBITDA Margin: 16.6% vs 15.3% YoY

• PAT: Rs 341 cr; +16.5% YoY (vs Est: Rs 350 cr)

Big Picture: It’s no secret that the FMCG industry has been down in the dumps.  Experts say Dabur’s results are promising, even if they aren’t extraordinary. That said, we don’t blame investors who have been burnt before waiting for the downturn to bottom out!

Dabur India is -2% over the last year.

Indiamart Intermesh (+7%) posted a solid set of Q4 numbers! Strong growth across its B2B and B2C verticals helped boost the top line. FYI - the revenue bump also comes during a typically weak quarter for the e-commerce biz, so it's a double win! A focus on higher-value subscriptions helped bump up margins and the bottomline. FYI - The company also declared a final dividend of Rs 20 p/sh for FY24. 💸

Here are its stats:

• Revenue: Rs 315 cr; +17% YoY

• EBITDA: Rs 88 cr; +34% YoY

• EBITDA Margin: 28.1% vs 24.6% last year

• PAT: Rs 100 cr; +79% YoY

Big Picture: Indiamart is firing on all cylinders, wrapping up FY24 on a GREAT note. But is this enough? Nuvama has cut its target price to Rs 2,650 p/sh (vs Rs 2,800 earlier). The brokerage believes the company may have tapped out its growth levers. Specifically, it feels subscriber addition will slow and the company will be unable to increase margins further from here on out. 📊

Indiamart Intermesh is +5% YTD.  

Charts

Chartbusters

Life comes fast, both for humans and stocks! Here are three companies that saw big movements today:

1) Godrej Industries was the top loser on NSE500. FYI - this comes after the promoter family settled on an amicable split of their big conglomerate. Godrej Ind and Godrej Properties will be run by Nadir Godrej (Adi Godrej’s brother). The restructuring removes an overhang and is a neutral move, but it looks like investors chose to book profits and get out when valuations are at a peak. 💸

2) REC hit a new all-time high after reporting strong Q4 results. Its bottomline and top line jumped by +33% YoY and +25% YoY. To top it off, the company said it plans to be NPA-free by the end of FY25. 🔥

3) HPCL rallied +8% intraday after global crude oil prices dipped for a third straight day. FYI - reports say a Middle East ceasefire could happen (if Hamas accepts Israel’s offer). This has resulted in oil prices cooling off, with an increase in US production also helping the downward decline. 📈

Check out their charts below:

Links That Don’t Suck

💯 5 Stocks to Buy Under 500 | Stocks to Buy in 2024 | Best Stocks to Buy Right Now

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