BOFA Merrill Lynch SENSEX Target at 54,000

FII Mover and Shaker of Indian Equity market, BOFA Merrill Lynch hosted an investor conference at which ministers in the Narendra Modi Government (Nitin Gadkari and Jayant Sinha), senior bureaucrats and nearly 40 companies participated.

Overweight India – Global Investors are overweight on India. GEM funds are nearly 420 bps overweight India BoFA’s view is that this makes India vulnerable to any near term global correction. India remains the most owned market in GEM by (more…)

Which is the Best PSU Bank worth Investment Grade in India ?

Best PSU Bank in IndiaWeak balance sheet growth and elevated credit costs would keep the profitability of PSU banks subdued. Furthermore, visibility on structural reforms remains poor. Whilst the Government has taken some initiatives, the process appears to be too gradual and it side-steps some of the key objectives of removing the Government’s direct control on PSU banks.

PSU banks’ 3QFY15 results highlighted continued stress on their loan book growth and credit quality. Slowing NII growth (5% YoY) and elevated credit costs (provisions at 1.1% of assets) led to RoA compressing to 0.3% in 3QFY15.

Focus on Structural Reforms
PSU banks, on an average, have lagged their private sector peers significantly over the last decade in terms of profitability and (more…)

ITC Cigarette Business – End of An Era

ITC GoldFlakeUnlike the previous Corrupt Regime of Congress, the present BJP Govt is highly determined on preserving the Health of the Nation and took another bold with hawkish stance on cigarettes which saw another double digit excise hike.

The budget has raised excise duty on cigarettes by 12-22% implying a ~14% effective hike for ITC, ahead of our as well as consensus’ estimates. This is fourth consecutive double digit hike and in fact, comes on top of ~20% hike in Jul-14. The budget (more…)