ICICI Sec gets HDFC Securities buy tag

The trade war initially created instability, but eventually may open up greater markets

— Arun Jaitley, Finance minister

ICICI Securities ( ISEC) is one of the strongest retail investing platforms for direct equities. The company has retained its market leadership position despite intense competition. ISEC has grown its market share to 9.2 per cent in Q1FY19 from 4.4 per cent in FY13. ISEC has the highest no of retail customer base- 4.2 million, this compares to 41.5 million debit card holders of ICICI Bank- just 9.6 per cent. This indicates that the company still has huge headroom for growth. Over time ISEC has transformed itself from being just a broker to a distributor of financial products- 22.8 per cent of revenues in FY13 to 26.2 per cent in FY18. Given the recent reduction in the total expense ratio ( TERs) of mutual funds, the brokerage expects overall growth in distribution revenues at 9.5 per cent per annum over FY18- 21 to Rs 6.1 billion and contribute 27.9 per cent to total revenues.

Broking firm: HDFC Securities Rating: Buy Closing price: 288.10