Domestic revenue growth of 10% YoY as steady though unexciting – recovery in some categories (mainly out-of-home) appears to have been partly offset by reduced in-home consumption for select products. We see near-term (increased) challenges due to inflationary inputs while execution on growth pillars continues.

Two important takeaways from HUL's 2Q results – (1) Focus (now) on ‘profitable volume growth’ after prioritising market share at (some) cost of margins and (2) Improvement in product innovation after a brief lull (in line with our expectations - see What Markets Want #1: HUL). On the industry, some fresh concerns around rural deceleration – HUL, particularly, should be largely fine given recovery in other pockets (urban and discretionary).

EBITDA rose 22.8% YoY despite contraction in EBITDA margin (-130bps YoY owing to higher operating expenses and pressure from acquisition of Copco and Ampion). PAT rose 18.9% YoY, partially impacted by lower...

GTM integration for nutrition business at 85% mark We are cutting FY22/23 EPS by 1.9%/0.2% on the back of 1) Inflationary environment impacting GRMs and 2) Slowdown witnessed in rural demand neutralized partly by uptick in Discretionary segments. Despite the near term inflation challenges, we remain positive on the structural story given that 1)...

Nestl sustained double digit growth as all categories except Maggi posted double digit sales growth led by strong consumer traction and gradual opening up of the economy. NEST continues to gain across channels with MT growing in mid-twenties while E-Com is sustaining faster growth. NEST's has increased focus on rural growth by increasing village coverage by 33% through relevant/ rural centric products which will accelerate growth as rural and semi-urban markets are growing at 2-2.5x of urban and are contributing...

Core (Ex-EPC) revenue grew 18.6% YoY to | 589.8 crore, driven by sharp jump of ~50% YoY in broadband revenues to | 100.6 crore owing to addition of 45,000 subscribers and 36% YoY growth in cable...

Ultratech Cement (UTCEM) Q2FY22 EBITDA was in-line with our estimate. Opex/t was up Rs389/t QoQ and 40% of it is driven by higher other expenses. Q2FY22 power and fuel cost increased by Rs47/t QoQ (4% QoQ) and is lower than our estimate due to low cost inventory, fuel cost efficiencies and higher consumption of green power. On pricing front, UTCEM has increased its prices by Rs10-15/bag in Oct-21 to offset the cost inflation. And has guided for EBITDA margin of 26-28% for the coming quarter. It has commissioned 1.2mt brownfield expansion in the Eastern markets and re-iterated to commission total 4mtpa in FY22E and 15mtpa in FY23E. UTCEM's balance sheet...

LTI witnessed broad based growth in the current quarter and was significantly higher than our estimate. Going forward, the company is seeing healthy traction in revenues led by robust deal pipeline and client mining. In addition, the company expects to add ~5K freshers & ~1K laterals leading to healthy revenue visibility. As a result the company expects H2FY22 growth to be better than H1FY22 (~23.2% YoY) and to be in leaders quadrant among mid cap companies. In addition, the company expects PAT margin in the range of 14-15% band. We expect LTI to grow at ~28% YoY and PAT margins to be higher than guided range at 16% in FY22. Despite our robust assumption,...

Key takeaways from Q2FY22: (1) Hatsun registered strong revenue growth of 23.2% YoY and we believe it is largely volume led, (2) steady launches of new products and geographical expansion of HAP outlets continued during the quarter and (3) EBITDA margin declined 180bps YoY due to higher input prices, increase in freight costs and likely increase in ad-spend. Hatsun is on track to complete its expansion at its three plants, which are likely to be completed during FY22.

LTI's revenue growth, in USD terms, stood at 8.9% QoQ CC in 2QFY22, above our estimate of 5.4%. Growth was broad based across verticals, service lines, geographies, and client buckets. Broad based industry growth was led by BFS and Manufacturing. EBIT margin expanded by 80bp QoQ to 17.2% in 2QFY22 (est. 16.7%), led by SG&A; leverage, offshoring, and higher working days, partially offset by utilization and higher costs. The management highlighted that the demand environment is one of the strongest. It expects demand to remain strong over the next three years....