BSE Realty Index Worst Hit

With the slowdown in Real Estate sector a reality, BSE Realty Index is the worst hit in the recent stock market meltdown. Today speculative stocks without any significant Landbank nor projects such as Akruti, IndiaBulls Real Estate, Peninsula, IVR Prime, etc have taken a severe beating.

Leading Realty companies are also down. DLF and Unitech are down by 3.5% while HDIL is down by 7%. Some companies like Omaxe, Ansal Infra / API, IVR Prime have already fallen by 50% since Jan-08.

2-Wheeler – The Road Ahead

Two-wheeler majors’ Feb sales declined c10%Y/Y – motorcycle sales declined 10%, due to subdued demand and a fairly challenging base effect. Hero Honda and Bajaj’s motorcycle declined ~5-8% Y/Y, whilst TVS’ motorcycle sales de-grew ~34%.

The latest launches over 3Q were Hero Honda’s ‘Hunk’ (a 150cc bike that is positioned against Bajaj’s Pulsar and TVS’ Apache). Within the 125cc category, TVS’ Flame and Bajaj’s XCD125 were the key new models.

The recent reduction in excise duties to 12% from 16% on both 2- and 3-wheelers has been passed on to customers – Hero Honda has reduced prices by (more…)

GDP for 3QFY08 Declines

GDP grew by 8.4%, a decline from 8.9% in the previous quarter (2QFY08) and 9.2% same quarter last year (3QFY07). Non-agricultural GDP growth decelerated to 9.8% from 9.9% last quarter and six consecutive quarters of double digit growth before that. As compared to 2QFY08, growth deceleration is most marked for mining, electricity and construction.

Coinciding with the growth deceleration, there has been significant spurt in WPI inflation which has increased by ~200 bps since October 2007. This would make it difficult for RBI to go for an early cut in policy rate.

Reliance Communcations BIG TV DTH Rollout

RCom will be rolling out nationwide direct to home (DTH) TV services before 1QFY09. India’s TV-broadcasting industry is in an exciting growth phase. Advertising expenditure, driven by growing consumerism and spending power, is estimated to result in a 15%+ Cagr in FY08-11CL, while the subscription revenues face structural changes with expansion of DTH services and upgradation of cable services on the back of conditional access system (CAS).

Three DTH players Tata Sky, Dish TV and SUN have already launched DTH services with an aggregate of 4.2m subscribers, while RCom and Bharti are expected to start within the next six months. We believe in the event that CAS is rolled over even in phases, in the remaining metro areas and 55 cities across India it would be a tremendous boost to the prospects of the DTH industry proving an upside to our forecasts.

GlaxoSmithKline Pharma- Accumulate

Morgan Stanley is bullish on the prospects of Glaxo Smithkline Pharma after the meeting with the management. GSK management team guided to early-single-digit sales growth in 2008 and 2009 (Morgan expcts 14-15% EPS growth) and re-iterated its business plan to launch new “exclusive” drugs in 2008. These launches have multi-year visibility, with Cervarix, in-licensed critical-care drug, allermist and Infanrix Hexa planned for 2009, and eltrombopag and synflorix planned for 2010.

Simultaneously, the company has planned new initiatives to grow its matured portfolio – focus on hospitals and rural penetration, re-organization of field force and contract field force for non-promoted drugs. (more…)