Margins appear stable for IT and auto stocks in Q3: Shibani Sircar Kurian
Shibani Sircar Kurian, Senior EVP, Sr. Fund Manager & Head -Equity Research, Kotak Mahindra AMC, says larger IT stocks are fairly in line with market valuations and therefore, she continues to be positive on the sector as a whole. However, this quarter, one should watch out for commentary in terms of deal flow as well as expectations going forward. The rupee depreciation will help in terms of margins and therefore margins should remain largely stable.
As far as auto stocks are concerned, commodity costs remaining under control are helping in terms of margins, but the main thing to watch out for will be volume growth over the next couple of months as such.
Is it going to be ‘happy days’ for FMCG? Will staples finally bottom out or will pressure continue?
Shibani Sircar Kurian: It has been a mixed bag as far as the consumer and staples pack goes. What we have been noticing and what management commentary over the last few quarters has been is that while the urban demand has been somewhat slowing down, there is an uptick that we are seeing on the rural side. Overall, it is still a fairly mixed bag in terms of growth. Even if you saw the last quarter numbers, the volume growth numbers were fairly muted.
However, what we are seeing is that from a rural perspective, demand seems to be improving. With inflation seemingly coming under control, especially food inflation, real rural wages, finally, after a very long period of time, are showing some signs of improvement. Data also seems to corroborate that there is some
