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BRIGHT PROSPECTS FOR SPECIALITY CHEMICALS

Indian Speciality Chemicals industry is worth USD 30 billion and forms 20% of the Chemicals Industry. Indian speciality chemicals grew 2x global speciality chemicals at CAGR of 13% over FY10-18 and is likely to grow at 14% per annum. It is expected to accelerate to 17% driven by domestic growth and stable exports. The growth drivers of Speciality Chemicals are 1. Increased End use Domestic Demand, 2.Strong Export Demand, 3. Mergers and Acquisitions on rise, 4. Cost Competitiveness, 5. Availability of skilled labour and 6. Investments in R&D. INR depreciation is also driving developed nations to shift/ start their operations in India.

Priyanka Gandhi

Published on 15/10/2018 12:00 AM

FILTER THE NOISE AND REANALYZE YOUR PORTFOLIO

Seeing the massive drop in markets over the past few days, I wondered if this situation presented any opportunities. While India story remains still strong for me, Investing has been tough over the past couple of years, simply because I feel that valuations are irrationally high, which has forced analysts to justify unduly high earnings expectations. Hence a correction like this presents a good opportunity to revisit the stocks. So I fired up my DistrictD account and looked up models on my portfolio companies. I adjusted the business drivers to reflect any changes to the recent developments. Checked if the quarterly performance was in any way different from my full year expectations. Did my fair valuations and even did DCFs for some. I avoided companies where Fuel Costs or Cost of Funds is important part of cost structure. Did a simple exercise where you detach yourself from all the market hullaballoo and just see how the core business is doing and what is the fair value for it under reasonable and achievable expectations. At the end of this simple exercise, I built a screen with my upsides and valuations that gave me insights into which stocks to hold onto, which ones could be sold off for better opportunities, or where there were irrational moves which I do not necessarily agree with. Overall, it helped me de-clutter my mind and focus on certain key stocks withing my portfolio in these uncertain times.

Udit Garg

Published on 26/09/2018 12:00 AM

ANALYSE MARKET DYNAMICS LIKE A BOSS

The past few weeks have been about currency wars, trade wars and a lot of things moving about and on within India itself. As a result stock markets have also been moving around. This does indeed present opportunities for investors – “buy into interesting stocks which have corrected a bit?” or “play into the export theme?” or “sell when there is still a good price?”. Either ways the dynamics of market are what keeps the juices going for us. We believe that humans aided by technological tools can analyse much better and deeper than either a purely human driven approach or a purely algo driven one. So we feel any analyst aided by their intellect and using DistrictD web models and tools can analyse the market dynamics like a boss. The models allow them to do varied analysis such as calculating the impact of INR depreciation on IT companies, Or the impact of Rising fuel prices on Airline companies profitability; Or commodity prices on any of the metals/mining companies etc. Stock buybacks, fund raising, cost of capital and several other themes can be analysed using our models.

Udit Garg

Published on 07/09/2018 12:00 AM

THE TECHIE FUND MANAGER!

Indian equity markets have grown at a rapid pace over the past 2-3 years. Domestic flows have gone up several fold over this time frame as the new generation is finally waking up to capital markets as a viable end for their savings. This shift in the asset allocation from banking system, real estate and gold towards financial assets such as stocks, insurance etc has meant that equity markets have seen strong flows. This liquidity flow coupled with rising stock prices has meant that suddenly fund managers are saddled with lots of money and expensive valuations. This has led to a peculiar problem for modern fund managers in India, how to deploy this large pool of money that is coming in and where to find new ideas from. Further the number of investible companies have been growing steadily, fueled by number of IPOs and growing small-cap/mid-cap companies that are now making the cut.

Udit Garg

Published on 12/03/2017 12:00 AM

THE NUMBERS GAME (PART 1)

DistrictD is about fostering and developing upon new ideas and thoughts and then debating on them. As such the investor community has always been a chatty lot, any information or idea travels through the community like wildfire. Qualitative information, snippets, management talks etc play an important role in defining how the markets behave and what is being bought or sold. However the underlying key aspect that eventually drives everything in markets are HARD NUMBERS.

Udit Garg

Published on 13/01/2017 12:00 AM

THE UTOPIAN DREAM

We wonder Why do retail investors lose money each time? Why do analysts cover only top 100 companies, whereas there are so many hidden gems beyond that? Why is critical information held in silos or with certain cliques for profiteering? Why is investing the domain of only a few elite?

Udit Garg

Published on 13/01/2017 12:00 AM