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India’s 5G subscriber base is expected to rise to 20-25% of overall users from around 17% now. But 5G adoption won’t be as fast as 4G because the average selling price of 5G smartphones is still 2-4x higher than normal smartphones, said India Rating and Research (Ind-Ra).The ratings firm added that the Indian telecom industry was at an inflection point in fiscal 2024 with their investments in 5G networks and spectrum renewal having peaked to almost $20 billion. Thereafter, telcos would keep their investments subdued while possibility of tariff increase remains uncertain."The cash outflow towards spectrum renewal/acquisition could be a marginal drag on cash flows from FY25. Visibility on meaningful tariff hikes remains uncertain, since globally also 5G has not yielded any major tariff premium over 4G tariffs,” said Priyanka Bansal, associate director, Ind-Ra.Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - the only two telcos to have rolled out 5G services - have guided that capex intensity would moderate from FY25 onwards as accelerated pan-India rollout of 5G was achieved by CY2023 offering 95% coverage.Therefore, the telcos would now focus on improving return on capital investment by increasing headlines.“Currently telcos are in a much better position to execute tariff hikes, given the improvement in service offerings (higher data quantum, higher speed, other auxiliary offerings, 5G speed etc) since the last tariff hikes”, she added.“..return ratios (ROCE) and free cash flow will see a sharp improvement only in FY26, when capex subsides and potential tariff hikes help improve revenues.”Ind-Ra said that significant investments in the network have improved service metrics such as higher data quantum, higher speed, other auxiliary offerings, 5G speed etc. which have far surpassed the historical tariff hikes.It also showed that subscribers have been resilient in absorbing tariff increases while showing consistent growth in data usage.Top two telcos Jio and Airtel shall continue to acquire market share from Vodafone Idea, especially in the high-ARPU (average revenue per user) customer base.

Fear of the coming anti-dumping duty in US has sent ripples across the ceramic tiles landscape in Morbi, the world’s second largest ceramics hub, ToI reported on May 31. The US govt has yet to official start levying the duty, but the tiles companies in Morbi are already worried, the report (by Niyati Parikh) said.They allege that a minimum of 25% of US orders have been suspended, with potential for further halts following the petition for anti-dumping duty submission to the US government.This setback comes already reduced demand, attributed to increased duties in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and economic deceleration in Europe.KG Kundariya, former president, Morbi Ceramic Association, told ToI: “The US ceramic tiles business is heavily import dependent and India is one of the exporters. Lately, tile makers in the US have moved a petition seeking to impose anti-dumping duty on ceramic tiles imported from India. There are fears among US companies that they may have to end up paying heftier import levies if the duty is imposed in retrospective effect. As a result, many have currently halted orders to India."110585058According to the website of the US Department of Commerce, on May 10, they declared the commencement of investigations into antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) regarding ceramic tiles from India.ToI's report said quoting Nilesh Jetparia, ex-president, Morbi Ceramic Association: “Dispatches to the US have been completely halted from Morbi. Unless there is greater clarity on the duties that are likely to be imposed, an importer will not risk paying additional duties on their purchases. As a result, the majority of orders are on hold.” Industry estimates suggest that the US constitutes approximately 8-9% of the total exports of ceramic tiles and related products from Morbi. On average, Morbi ships roughly 800 containers of ceramic tiles to the US each month.Amidst the disruptions in global trade caused by the Red Sea Crisis, which has led to delayed shipments and increased shipping costs, manufacturers of ceramic tiles in Morbi are grappling with uncertainty as orders from US-based manufacturers are temporarily halted.Morbi is home to approximately 800 ceramic tile manufacturing units, exporting goods valued at Rs 19,000 crore to 180 countries, including the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Israel, Taiwan, and various European nations.

Shares of Apollo Hospitals rallied 3.4% in Friday's early trade to the day’s high of Rs 5,955 after the company reported a 77% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its net profit.The company’s revenue from operations in the January-March 2024 period increased 15% YoY to Rs 4,944 crore and the board of directors have also recommended a final dividend of Rs 10 per share for the year FY24.EBITDA for the fourth quarter stood at Rs 640 crore in the reporting March quarter, compared with Rs 488 crore in the same quarter a year earlier.Here is what brokerages say about the Q4 results:MacquarieThe global brokerage firm stated that the company was operationally in line with their estimates but hospital profitability showed a decline. PAT was driven by higher depreciation and amortization expenses. The hospital business EBITDA margin compressed 130 bps YoY and 70 bps QoQ to 23.1%.Macquarie has an 'underperform' rating for the stock with a target price of Rs 4,200.Motilal OswalApollo Hospitals' 4QFY24 revenue grew 15% YoY to Rs 49,40 crore against Motial's estimates of Rs 4,870 crore while the EBITDA margin expanded 160bp YoY to 13% vs their estimate of 12.8%, due to lower RM costs/employee expenses/other expenses (down by 40/70bp/50bp YoY as a % sales).Motilal will give a rating and the target price for the stock post the conference call which is due later today."FY24 has been a special year for us at Apollo as we achieved some remarkable milestones to further enhance the quality of our care. Our steadfast dedication to delivering top-notch healthcare services continues to be a key pillar of our growth," said Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Pushed by strong order inflows and strong execution, multibagger rail PSU stock RVNL is having a dream run by rallying almost 1,000% in the past 2 years while displaying a 3-fold growth in the last one year alone.During the fourth quarter itself, the company's revenue, EBITDA, PAT grew by 17.4%, 22% and 33% YoY, respectively, as the order book at the end of the quarter stood at around Rs 85,000 crore.RVNL’s order inflow in FY25 is guided to be in the range of Rs 20,000 crore - Rs 25,000 crore and it aspires to maintain a book to sales ratio in the range of 3x - 4x.“We have an overall positive view on the stock for the medium to long term. At CMP the stock is trading at 39.8x/35.9x of its FY25E/FY26E Bloomberg consensus earnings estimates,” said Sunny Agrawal of SBI Securities.On charts, RVNL has been trading strong for the last many months, forming a series of higher highs and higher lows with a surge in volumes. Recently, stock witnessed a sharp vertical rally after finding support near around the 20 EMA on the weekly chart. After a sharp rally, stock has now turned overbought and has also formed a negative divergence in the momentum indicator.“We expect stocks to witness a profit booking and are likely to trade sideways before any meaningful upmove. Traders can consider booking part profits here at current levels and waiting for a dip for fresh entry. On the level front, stock has a strong support placed around the 350 zone, which coincides with its previous resistance zone. On the higher side, 390-400 acts as a strong hurdle zone for the stock,” cautioned Rohan Shah, Technical Analyst at Religare Broking.Buying is visible across rail PSU stocks with a surge in delivery and trading volumes which is supporting the up move.“On a monthly scale it is trending upwards and holding gains at higher levels. It has given a range breakout on weekly chart and trading at life highs which implies strength in the stock,” said Chandan Taparia, Head- Technical and Derivatives, Senior VP Research.On a daily scale, decline is being bought into as buying is visible on dips, added Taparia stating that the overall chart setup indicates that momentum is likely to continue and stock is all set to test 500+ levels.Momentum indicator RSI is positively placed on monthly and weekly scale which may support the ongoing up move. It is holding well above all crucial moving averages which has bullish implications.RVNL on Thursday also informed the exchanges that they have won a Rs 38.10 crore contract from the South East Central Railway which involves the provision of an automatic signaling system with electronic interlocking between Champa, Saragaon, and Baraduar, Sakti sections.The project is likely to be executed within 15 months according to the company’s filing to the stock exchanges.The shares of RVNL closed 9% higher on BSE at Rs 382.85 on Thursday.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)