Nifty, Sensex end higher for 3rd straight day; market trend bullish, volatility to persist Indian equity markets rallied for a third straight day on Monday as prospects of a slowing economic growth fanned hopes that global central banks may ease up on aggressive interest rate hikes. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 433 points, or 0.82% to end at 53,161 and the NSE Nifty 50 added 132 points, or 0.85% to close at 15,832. Sectorally, the broad-based rally saw the Nifty Auto index ending with 2% gain, and the Nifty Metal index with 1.6% rally. In the broader markets, the Nifty MidCap and SmallCap indices gained 1% and 2% respectively. The market trend may remain bullish for the shorter term but simultaneously profit booking from higher levels is expected as we are inching towards monthly expiry, according to analysts.Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities “Currently the market is trading near its important resistance level and the texture of the chart suggests there is a strong possibility of a quick intraday correction from the current levels. For day traders, 15900 and 15925 would act as immediate resistance levels. Below the same, the correction wave is likely to continue till 15750-15700. On the flip side, above 15925 breakout, the index could move up to 16000. Contra traders can take a long bet near 15700 with a strict support stop loss of 15660.” “ECB’s three-day forum in Portugal’s Sintra gets concluded on Monday against a backdrop of worries over whether the global economy could get into a recession. Investors will closely watch Wednesday’s panel discussion with Lagarde, Powell and Bailey for insights on how the central bank heads view the trade-off between curbing inflation while still trying to ensure a soft-landing for the global economy. Investors will also keep an eye on slew of economic data due this week for US, UK, India and China. We expect market volatility to continue this week with Nifty approaching its strong resistance around the 16,000 mark.” “The Indian market surged and continued its up-move on Monday’s opening bell. The trend may remain bullish for the shorter term but simultaneously profit booking from higher levels is expected as we are inching towards monthly expiry. Technically, Sustaining above 16000 levels on Nifty this week could result in acceleration of the uptrend, while 15,550 needs to be protected on the downside. If the Nifty breaches 15,350 on the downside, then the recent bullishness gets negated. On the other hand, Bank nifty has support at 33000 levels while resistance at 34500 levels. In coming days Crude, USDINR and Gold may drive and impact volatility in the Indian market as well.”
Services miss estimates; Software better than expected: Services business grew 0.6% q-o-q cc and missed HCLT’s Q3FY23 guidance, mainly due to a 3.8% q-o-q cc decline in the ER&D segment. Growth in the IT&BS segment moderated slightly to 1.6% q-o-qcc but was in line with estimates. BFSI and Life Sciences were the key growth drivers, while communications were the drag among verticals. Growth was led by the Americas region, while Europe and ROW posted declines.
Decline in bookings reflects delays in decision-making: HCLT won 10 large deals in services and three large deals in Software with net-new deal TCV of $2.1bn, down 8% y-o-y. Deal wins were driven by the services portfolio, were centered on cost optimisation and vendor consolidation and came mainly from BFSI, manufacturing and Life Sciences verticals. Management highlighted a ramp-down in discretionary spending in Hitech and communications verticals but pointed to a strong deal pipeline.
FY24 guidance in line with expectations: HCLT has guided for 6-8% y-o-y growth for overall business and 6.5-8.5% y-o-y cc growth in services segment and 18-19% margins in FY24—all in line with our assumptions. We maintain our FY24-25 cc revenue growth and margin estimates and expect HCLT to deliver 6.5% cc revenue growth and 18.4% margins in FY24. However, we lower our earnings forecasts by 2% to factor the higher tax rate indicated by the management.
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Raise PT: HCLT has fared better in Q4, particularly in North America and BFSI, unlike its peers. However, rising demand uncertainty as a US recession nears remains a concern. HCLT’s stock at CMP trades at 17x PE and offers a 5% yield, which in our view should limit downsides and derating. Hence, we raise our target PE to 17x (16x earlier) and raise our PT to Rs 1,125, offering 8% potential upside.