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Morgan Stanley has retained an overweight recommendation on the stock with a target price of ₹1,100. While Morgan Stanley has cut estimates on Tech Mahindra, the brokerage has retained its overweight stance as the company has narrowed the growth gap versus peers, has much higher operating leverage than peers, and valuation is one of the cheapest among large-caps.

The Federal Reserve started a two-day meeting, and on Wednesday it is expected to announce a 0.75 percentage point interest rate hike to fight inflation. Investors have worried that aggressive interest rate hikes by the Fed could tip the economy into recession.

Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, United Breweries, Colgate Palmolive, Schaeffler, Biocon, CG Power, Laurus Labs and SKF are among the companies that will announce their earnings for the quarter ended June 2022.

Markets have been quivering in recent days, concerned that central banks around the world will push their war on inflation too far and tank economies in the process. Investors are increasingly betting that the Fed might lower interest rates next year, presumably because they expect the central bank to set off a downturn.

"I think cement is clearly a good way to play the real estate theme. JK Cement, Ramco Cement or Dalmia Bharat have corrected a lot due to commodity price pressure, higher raw material costs, lower demand, and the CCI probe. So, I think now they are at an interesting juncture in terms of valuations which are very cheap and volumes which can only increase. For JK Cement, the white putty demand is picking up."

Its net interest margin, a key profitability parameter, improved to 2.74% from 2.55% a year back. Asset quality, which remained a drag for quite some time, has improved, with gross non-performing assets ratio falling to 5.87% from 8% a year back. Net NPA was at 2.87% against 5.05%.

The company said double-digit top-line growth reflects strong consumer demand in off-trade, recovery in the on-trade channel, active portfolio management and benefit from the soft comparator.

"Despite this being a seasonal quarter, the company has performed pretty strongly. The company has performed well on almost all the parameters be it in terms of orders or sales or profitability," said Group Chief Financial Officer R. Shankar Raman said in a media earnings conference call.

The maker of Coke and Sprite soft drinks and Minute Maid juice said volume performance was driven by continued recovery in away-from-home channels and ongoing investments. Quincey said the beverage maker gained shares in sparkling soft drinks and juices and that it is “continuing to invest in the marketplace availability and execution to capture growth.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 87 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 lost 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.8%.