The company is an auto ancillary player catering primarily to two wheeler components in the domestic market, which forms three-fourth of its total business.
Around this time last year, we had analysed the FMCG sector’s March 2022 quarter earnings. At the time, the sector was grappling with twin headwinds of a demand slump and rising input costs. Valuations were still expensive. Most FMCG players have declared their results for the March 2023 quarter.
It has been a rough ride for the Indian API industry in the past 2 years. A combination of factors including price erosion in US generics, destocking, demand fluctuation, elevated raw material costs and freight costs have hit the margins of many API plays including market favourites such as Divi’s, Laurus and Aarti Drugs. Their growth has also remained at low single digits in this period.
Still, if a company has managed to remain resilient in this period and yet corrected to valuations that make it attractive, it deserves to be noticed.
Mankind Pharma, which operates in the domestic pharmaceuticals space, opens its Rs 4300 core IPO today. The issue is priced at a band of Rs 1,026 – Rs 1,080 per share of face value Re.1/-.
When markets make merry, many stocks have seemingly compelling stories even for entering at peak valuation. And the market is fine with stretched valuations to accommodate such stories. In other words, every market-favoured stock appears to scream – buy me at any price.
But when challenges emerge, the same market starts reacting so sharply that investors who bought into the story midway start making losses. Yes, there isn’t a bigger disaster for stock market investors than earnings and PE multiples contracting together.
In February last year, we had issued a buy call on the stock of a premier fashion player housing a vast number of national brands. The steps this company had taken to expand its offering range, a return of focus on margins, and the consumption promise all propelled the call. the stock rallied handsomely as well, post our call.
However, owing to two factors, the stock has since given up nearly 40% from its high and is currently about 25% below our original call price.
Indian markets have corrected about 10% (Nifty 50) from the last peak in December 2022. But many stocks have fallen much more than the bellwether index. This has provided an opportunity to revisit some of our recommended stocks – to either identify averaging opportunities or move them to a BUY from a HOLD.
When we published our equity market outlook for 2023, we had mentioned where pockets of opportunity could be found. The correction the market is going through provides fertile grounds for stock picking. So here, we tell you how to pick stocks in 2023, in those pockets that we had noted. We do this using our Stock Screener.
In April 2022, we had issued a buy recommendation on a general insurance player, as both the industry and the company itself were emerging from the Covid-driven impact and were poised for growth. Since then, however, the insurance sector has lost market favour as growth has not panned out as expected.
When we gave the call of this R&D focused company engaged in the manufacture of enzymes and probiotics, the company had Covid-related challenges but showed promise of growth. It was later also pulled down by consolidation of acquisitions and costs related to new product launches. We therefore knew that the call would take longer to pay off. The stock went through a significant correction after our initial recommendation as earnings disappointed.
Covid proved be an ultimate stress test for Small Finance Banks (SFBs). As SFBs largely cater to low income borrowers comprising small businesses, small vehicle owners and other self-employed categories including micro-finance, they were among the most Covid-sensitive sectors.
We had, in mid-2021, initiated a buy call on a stock that was reinventing itself from a supplier of diesel engines into an EV player. It was an early call we’d made on the EV boom, which appears well-timed as electric 2-wheeler sales jumped from 16,000 units in 2018 to 150,000 units in 2021 to a whopping 615,000 units in 2022!
With the EV 2-wheeler market now clearly segmenting itself, there is more clarity on how competition and market share is shaping up. The EV 2-wheeler industry is also going through regulatory tightening.
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