ICICIdirect has maintained 'Hold' on Hindalco Industries with price target of Rs 148 as against current market price (CMP) of Rs 152 in its report.

Commenting on the investment rationale, ICICIdirect said, "Novelis, the overseas rolled products manufacturing subsidiary of Hindalco Industries, has announced its Q2FY15 numbers. The total rolled products shipments for Q2FY15 came in at 765 KT, lower than our expectation of 820 KT. The EBITDA for the quarter stood at USD 245 million with corresponding EBITDA/tonne at USD 320/tonne.

We believe Novelis' performance will improve, going forward, on account of the increasing share of the high margin automotive segment in the total product mix. Going forward, an improvement in blended EBITDA/tonne is likely to be driven by increasing contribution of the auto sector coupled with an increase in recycling content. Given the capex guidance by Novelis for FY15E (USD 500-550 million, USD 264 million spent in H1FY15), we expect debt to remain at elevated levels."

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