Ramakrishna Forgings, EKC, Centurion Bank of Punjab, BPCL, Offshore Service Providers

Man Financial says Ramakrishna Forgings's topline is higher than
expectations, but faced pressures in the bottom line due to higher
depreciation and tax provisioning. They maintain a BUY with a target of
197

ICICIDirect recommends a BOOK PROFITS on EKC. At the current price of Rs
1063, the stock is richly valued at 20.79x its FY09E earnings per share of Rs 51.12. They believe that investors should book profits.

SSKI recommends OUTPERFORMER on Centurion Bank of Punjab

CBoP has reported Rs280m net profit (9% yoy growth) for Q4FY07 in line with our expectation of Rs282m. Higher standard asset provisioning led by one time hit of Rs198m (as expected) largely offset the benefits of the continued momentum in core income streams . Given its inherent duration mismatch, the bank was vulnerable to rising deposit rates leading to pressure on margins. CASA ratio also declined to 31% (decline of 300 bps QoQ ) considering the rapid balance growth . A latent significant operating leverage continues to be the key attractions of the bank. We have marginally downgraded numbers by 2.5% and 1% in FY08 and FY09 to reflect the higher provisioning. Going forward, we expect 46% CAGR in CBoP's earnings over FY07-09E. Though valuations of 4.2x FY08E and 3.8FY09E Adj P/BV appear expensive, they do not price in the high RoE generating capacity of the retail focused business model and low market cap/assets vis-à-vis peers . Maintain Outperformer.

SSKI Recommends OUTPERFORMER on BPCL

Bharat Petroleum Corporation's (BPCL) Q4FY07 results ¿ net profit of Rs 6.7 bn ¿were in line with our estimates of Rs 6bn. During the quarter, BPCL received Rs 9 bn in the form of oil bonds and Rs 11.84bn as upstream share that more than compensated for the negative impact of total under recoveries of ~Rs18.5bn. We upgrade the stock to Outperformer to factor in an expected improvement in fuel marketing margins driven by lower crude prices. Reiterate outperformer with a price target of Rs431.

Emkay recommends investing in Offshore Service Providers

We believe that fundamentals for offshore service providers remain extremely strong. Adding icing on the cake is the long term nature of contracts, which we believe provides unprecedented visibility of future earnings. We believe that the Indian offshore oil field services are very attractively valued with the group trading at an average two year forward P/E multiple of 8X. We believe a confluence of strong fundamentals, high earnings visibility, attractive valuation and strong possibility of re-rating should ensure superior stock performances by the entire pack of Indian offshore oilfield service providers. We initiate coverage on the sector with a positive view and BUY ratings on all the companies under coverage. Our top picks in the sector remain Aban, Great Offshore and Garware Offshore.


Sharekhan Recommends Aurobhindo Pharma

At the current market price of Rs684, Aurobindo is trading at 14.9x its FY2008E and 12.0x its FY2009E earnings. We initiate coverage on Aurobindo with a Buy recommendation and a one-year price target of Rs914 (an upside of 34% from the current levels). The price target discounts the FY2009E earnings by 16x.