Renewable energy stock Vistra has a 57% upside

In today’s top stories, investors signal losing interest in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, an EV startup in China beats Nik on vehicle deliveries and UBS shares its top pick in the renewable energy sector. Elsewhere, India’s most valuable startup states its aim to become profitable by March, and BT invests in drone startup Altitude Angel.

Wall Street sours on TSMC

Wall Street is turning losing faith in the world’s biggest chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) [TSM]. Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs and UBS both expect its sales to be flat this year. “TSMC is not immune to the industry inventory digestion and end-demand correction into 2023,” UBS analysts led by Sunny Lin wrote in a note to clients. Chip equipment suppliers ASML [ASML] and Applied Materials [AMAT] are good picks, according to New Street research seen by Barron’s.

EV startup delivers more than Nio

A little-known Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup reportedly delivered more cars than Nio [NIO] last year. Nezha more than doubled its annual deliveries to over 152,000, while Nio’s numbers were up 34% to 122,000. While Nio’s larger SUVs start around 400,000 yuan, Nezha is selling theirs at just 83,900 yuan. However, BYD [1211.HK] remains in the lead, with annual EV sales up 180% to over 911,000. The company is slated to release a new luxury model today.

Byju’s founder to raise stake

India’s most valuable startup Byju’s is aiming to become profitable by March this year and has been reining in its marketing spend and optimising operational costs. In a bid to help the edtech startup achieve its ambitious goal, founder Byju Raveendran is raising funds to buy back up to 15% of the company to raise his stake in the business to 40%. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital India and Blackrock also have substantial investments in the Bangalore startup.

UBS’s top renewable energy pick

Rising rates weighed on renewable energy growth in 2022. While headwinds could persist this year, the $370bn of investments pledged through the US Inflation Reduction Act should help it to see secular growth over the next decade or two, according to UBS analysts led by Sam Arie. Of the renewable energy stocks rated ‘buy’ by UBS, Vistra [VST] has the biggest upside to its price target at 57.2%.

BT invests in drone startup

Telecoms provider BT Group [BT-A.L] is investing £5m in drone startup Altitude Angel. The partnership will facilitate the roll-out of the drone company’s Arrow technology. BT will provide network infrastructure for a proposed corridor that will help commercial drones to carry cargo and medical supplies up and down a 165-mile stretch of southern and central England. The two parties previously worked together on Project XCelerate, conducting flight trials in the summer of 2021.