Jio's growth could lift Reliance, but retail and oil businesses still lag: Pankaj Pandey

«We are still some time away from paint stocks bottoming out. We have seen players like Asian Paints, the margin profile coming down from say 20% plus kind of a level to about 15-16 odd,» says Pankaj Pandey, Head Research, ICICIdirect.com.

Just wanted your own sense on what Tesla's entry into India, if all gets cleared, actually means for the incumbents from within the passenger vehicle segment within that segment. Your namely Tata Motors, M&M, and a Hyundai as well.
Pankaj Pandey: So, our sense is that when you look at the cheapest price product from Tesla, the overall costing is going to be in excess of 40 lakhs. So, from that perspective, it is not going to compete with the listed players. Probably it will have or it is going to compete with the likes of German manufacturers, especially BMW, Mercedes, and others.

So, we do not see that as a threat. What is doing well in auto is, again, some of these players like, say, for example, Mahindra & Mahindra, YTD their sales are up about 20-odd percent. Similarly, something like, say, TVS at about 13-odd percent or Eicher which is doing well especially in the premium leg of the two-wheeler segment. So, from that perspective, one needs to be very selective in auto because a lot of these two-wheeler trades are struggling also because of the financing issue. So, from that perspective, one needs to be very selective in auto.

Your thoughts and let us talk about paints in specific because there the entire shake off happened as soon as Birla entered the market. You saw the