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Market closes higher, Jefferies maintains a ‘Hold’ rating on Hindalco

Trendlyne Analysis

Nifty 50 closed higher, with the volatility index India VIX trading below 19%. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones closed higher on Wednesday. Brent crude oil futures rises by 0.7% in today’s trading session. However, Brent crude fell to below its $90 mark amid the global recession fears.

Nifty Smallcap 100 also closed in the green, as the benchmark index trades higher. Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services closed higher than Wednesday’s levels. Nifty IT closes higher, taking cues from the NASDAQ 100, which closed higher on Wednesday.

Nifty 50closed at 17,800.10 (175.7, 1%), BSE Sensexclosed at 59,688.22 (659.3, 1.1%) while the broader Nifty 500closed at 15,441.75 (122.4, 0.8%)

Market breadth is in the green. Of the 1,928 stocks traded today, 1,111 were in the positive territory and 772 were negative.

  • InterGlobe Aviation sees a long build-up in its September 29 future series as its open interest rises 113% with put to call ratio of 0.71.

  • Tata Power’s arm Tata Power Renewable Energy partners with stainless steel manufacturer Viraj Profile to build a 100 MW solar power plant.

  • Tanla Platforms rises as its board approves the buyback of equity shares at Rs 1,200 per share for an aggregate amount of Rs 170 crore.

  • Zydus Lifesciences announces proof-of-concept for its molecule inhibitor ZYIL1 in its phase 2 clinical study. The study demonstrated that the inhibitor was successful in treating patients with a rare and lifelong auto-inflammatory condition called cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS).

  • ICICI Bank and SKF India hit their all-time highs of Rs 900.8 and Rs 5,008 respectively.

  • Jefferies maintains its ‘Hold’ rating on Hindalco, with a target price of Rs 390. The brokerage expects demand to grow by 3% during CY22-24. However, rising interest rates may affect demand.
  • Bonanza initiates coverage on Cera Sanitaryware with a ‘Buy’ rating and a target price of Rs 6,564. This indicates an upside of 19%. The brokerage expects the company’s profitability to improve on the back of robust demand, a diversified distribution network, record capacity utilisation, and its high market share. It estimates the company’s profit to grow at a CAGR of 24% over FY22-25.

  • Mahindra & Mahindra hits an all-time high of Rs 1,331.9, as it surpasses Tata Motors in terms of market cap. The company's market cap stands at Rs 1.65 lakh crore.

  • Porinju Veliyath and Litty Thomas acquire a 2.1% stake (1.6 lakh shares) in Duroply Industries via preferential allotment. This increases their shareholding to 7% from 4.9% as on September 2.

  • Special Consumer Services, Healthcare Services, and Other Non-Ferrous Metals industries rise more than 2% today.

  • Schneider Electric is rising as its board approves the expansion of production capacity of vacuum interrupters and vacuum circuit breakers. The company plans to set up a manufacturing unit in Kolkata with a capacity of 1.8 lakh MV.

  • ICICI Securities maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on Phoenix Mills with a target price of Rs 1,645. This indicates an upside of 18.7%. The brokerage believes the company will benefit from an increase in consumption across malls given its strong brand recall, market leadership, and a strong pipeline of projects. It expects the company’s revenue to grow at a CAGR of 50.2% over FY22-24.

  • Vodafone Idea is rising as the Ministry of Finance clears a proposal to convert the accrued interest on dues into equity, according to reports. The interest is Rs 16,130 crore. The government will hold a 33% stake once the deal goes through.

  • Paint stocks like Kansai Nerolac Paints, Asian Paints, Berger Paints, and Akzo Nobel India, among others, are rising in trade as crude oil prices fall.

  • Brent crude oil drops below $90 per barrel amid global recession fears. The oil benchmark, WTI falls to a 7-month low.

  • Sonata Software surges ahead of its record date for bonus issue of equity shares on September 10, 2022. The bonus issue is announced in the ratio of 1:3.

  • Retail sales for the automotive industry are up 8% YoY in August to 15.2 lakh units, according to data from the Federation of Automotive Dealers' Association. Two-wheeler retail sales rise 8.5% YoY. Retail sales of car makers are up 6.5% YoY.

  • PSU Banks like State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank among others are rising in trade. All constituents of the broader Nifty PSU Bank index are trading in the green.

  • Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) sells 2.7 crore shares (1.8% stake) in CG Power and Industries for Rs 595.3 crore in various bulk/block deals. In another deal, promoter Bharti Telecom buys 9.6 crore shares in Bharti Airtel for Rs 6,603.6 crore.

  • The Gangwal family, one of the promoters of InterGlobe Aviation, is to sell a 2.8% stake worth Rs 1,996 crore through a block deal. The shares will be offered to institutional buyers at a discount of 6.5% of the closing price of Rs 1,977 per share on Wednesday. The block deal will take place today.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd. (6,373.25, 10.32%), Shree Cements Ltd. (24,458.45, 5.51%) and Patanjali Foods Ltd. (1,375.10, 4.82%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Hindalco Industries Ltd. (420.55, -2.84%), Endurance Technologies Ltd. (1,467.10, -1.96%) and Gland Pharma Ltd. (2,440.90, -1.91%).

Volume Rockets

31 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd. (556.25, 11.33%), Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd. (6,373.25, 10.32%) and Star Cement Ltd. (104.20, 7.31%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were MMTC Ltd. (38.50, -8.00%) and InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (1,940.65, -1.87%).

Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. (688.95, 4.67%) was trading at 25.5 times of weekly average. Aarti Drugs Ltd. (466.15, 6.37%) and Indian Bank (203.55, 6.60%) were trading with volumes 14.4 and 7.7 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

33 stocks overperformed with 52-week highs, while 2 stocks tanked below their 52-week lows.

Stocks touching their year highs included - Ambuja Cements Ltd. (461.90, 2.90%), Apollo Tyres Ltd. (277.80, 1.11%) and Astral Ltd. (2,471.40, 1.31%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Natco Pharma Ltd. (607.00, -0.73%) and Sanofi India Ltd. (6,088.10, -0.24%).

22 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd. (556.25, 11.33%) and Sonata Software Ltd. (571.30, 6.59%). 4 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Sobha Ltd. (715.10, -1.28%) and Tata Motors Ltd. (442.20, -0.82%).

Estimated capital expenditure for companies one year forward. Only non-zero values are shown.
Market closes lower, ICICI Securities maintains 'Buy' on Angel one

Trendlyne Analysis

Indian indices closed lower with the volatility index India VIX closing 0.8% down today. European stocks trade lower. Most Asian indices either closed flat or lower as US indices closed in red on Tuesday.

Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 closed in the green, despite the benchmark index closing lower. Nifty Auto closed in red while Nifty Realty closed flat. Nifty IT closed in the green, despite the NASDAQ 100 closing lower on Tuesday.

Nifty 50closed at 17,629.50 (-26.1, -0.2%), BSE Sensexclosed at 59,028.91 (-168.1, -0.3%) while the broader Nifty 500closed at 15,323.00 (10.0, 0.1%)

Market breadth is in the green. Of the 1,922 stocks traded today, 1,110 were gainers and 752 were losers.

  • Stocks like Rites, GMM Pfaudler, Vijaya Diagnostic Centre, and Astralare in the overboughtzone, according to the Money Flow Index or MFI.

  • Ambuja Cements touches its all-time high of Rs 446.5 today. This comes ahead of the closure of Adani Group’s open offer at Rs 385 per share, the open offer closes on September 9.

  • ICICI Securities maintains 'Buy' rating on Angel One with a target price of Rs 1,830, indicating an upside of 36.6%. The brokerage says that the company maintained its business momentum in August with 9% MoM increase in number of orders and 29% MoM rise in gross client acquisition. It estimates the company's revenue to grow at a CAGR of 12% over FY22-24.

  • Deutsche Bank expects India’s overall foreign exchange reserves to decline during FY23, due to the widening current account deficit and interference by the RBI to support the rupee.
  • Coal Indiaand Grindwell Norton hit their 52-week highs of Rs 238.6 and Rs 2,290, respectively. Both stocks rise for two consecutive sessions.

  • Tamilnad Mercantile Bank’s Rs 831.6-crore IPO gets bids for 2.9X of the available 87.1 lakh shares on offer on the last day of bidding. The retail investor quota gets bids for 6.5X of the available 15.8 lakh shares on offer.

  • FMCG stocks like ITC, Nestle India, Godrej Consumer Products, Britannia Industries, among others, are rising in trade as palm oil prices fall. The broader sectoral index Nifty FMCG is also trading in the green.
  • Aarti Industries is planning a capex outlay of Rs 3,000 crore for FY23-24. The company will focus on downstream products in existing and new chemistry value chains like chlorotoluene. It will also focus on custom manufacturing opportunities.

  • Cipla is rising as it receives the final approval for its abbreviated new drug application from the US Food and Drug Administration for lenalidomide (generic of revlimid). This drug is used to treat various types of cancer. Revlimid generated sales worth $2.58 billion in the US market over the past year till June.

  • CG Power is falling as around 1.3 crore equity shares trade in a block deal, according to reports.

  • Dixon Technologies is rising as Jefferies remains bullish on the stock with a target price of Rs 5,305, according to reports. The brokerage expects the company to outperform its industry on the back of new product launches, an expanding client base, and also benefit from the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes.

  • Max Ventures and Industries' arm Max Estates acquires Acreage Builders for Rs 291.5 crore. The acquisition is to use Acreage Builders' assets, including the land holdings to develop a commercial project.

  • Axis Direct initiates coverage on Indian Hotels with a ‘Buy’ rating and a target price of Rs 360, indicating an upside of 16%. The brokerage believes the company is well-placed to benefit from the recovering hospitality and tourism industry given its robust cash flows, strategic measures, and proactive capex. It expects the company’s net profit to grow at a CAGR of 45.4% over FY23-25.

  • Food & Drugs Retailing, Commodity Printing / Stationery, and IT Consulting & Software industries fall more than 7% in the past month.

  • Zuari Industries is rising as it signs an MoU with Envien International and Zuari Envien Bioenergy. The company and Envien International will establish a joint venture with 50% stake each. The JV will construct and operate a 150-kilo litres per day ethanol distillery.

  • Cements stocks like UltraTech Cement, Ambuja Cements, Shree Cements, ACC, among others, are up by more than 3%. The cement & cement products industry is also rising in trade today.

  • Lupin is rising as it signs an exclusive license and supply agreement with DKSH to market biosimilars in the Philippines. According to this agreement, Lupin’s subsidiary Multicare Pharmaceuticals will be responsible for the approvals and distribution of biosimilars. The medicines will be used to treat bone-related disorders and in cases of oncology, ophthalmology, and immunology.

  • According to Morgan Stanley, India's upcoming capex cycle is signalling a good earnings season. The brokerage expects strong demand to drive further investments.

  • Bajaj Finserv’s subsidiary Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co’s total new business premium declines 25.4% MoM to Rs 669 crore. The new business premium falls as its group single premium declines by more than 2X MoM to Rs 232.2 crore.

  • Biocon sells 2.1 crore shares (5.4% stake) in Syngene International for Rs 1,220.3 crore in a bulk deal. In another deal, promoter Raja Ganesan Chandramohan sells 54.4 lakh shares (2.5% stake) in Hatsun Agro Products for Rs 537.4 crore.

  • InterGlobe Aviation (Indigo) appoints Pieter Elbers as its new Chief Executive Officer. His appointment came into effect on Tuesday.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Container Corporation of India Ltd. (726.55, 8.55%), Shree Cements Ltd. (23,181.05, 7.05%) and Vodafone Idea Ltd. (9.75, 6.56%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Avenue Supermarts Ltd. (4,426.30, -2.87%), Tata Motors Ltd. (445.85, -2.60%) and InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (1,977.70, -2.16%).

Crowd Puller Stocks

32 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included Vakrangee Ltd. (37.05, 12.44%), Wockhardt Ltd. (278.00, 8.81%) and Container Corporation of India Ltd. (726.55, 8.55%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were Sunteck Realty Ltd. (451.20, -4.48%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (753.10, -1.07%) and 3M India Ltd. (22,780.60, -0.89%).

JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd. (499.65, 6.63%) was trading at 9.2 times of weekly average. Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd. (66.80, 6.54%) and The Ramco Cements Ltd. (772.15, 1.72%) were trading with volumes 8.6 and 7.1 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

23 stocks made 52-week highs, while 3 stocks were underachievers and hit their 52-week lows.

Stocks touching their year highs included - Ambuja Cements Ltd. (448.90, 2.84%), Apollo Tyres Ltd. (274.75, 0.84%) and Blue Dart Express Ltd. (9,050.70, 1.91%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (633.85, -0.44%) and MphasiS Ltd. (2,083.95, 1.11%).

18 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including Vakrangee Ltd. (37.05, 12.44%) and Angel One Ltd. (1,486.65, 7.18%). 8 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Tata Motors Ltd. (445.85, -2.60%) and Sheela Foam Ltd. (3,117.40, -2.39%).

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The Baseline
07 Sep 2022
Chart of the Week: India has a young working population. But it may not fully benefit from it
By Abdullah Shah

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projects India’s GDP to grow by 7.2% in FY23, which places the country among the fastest growing economies in the world. One of the reasons for the rapid growth is that India entered a demographic dividend starting 2018. 

A demographic dividend occurs when a country’s working population is larger than its dependent population. When people have fewer dependents (children and elderly parents), they tend to take more risks, travel for work, and also take up high-productivity jobs. This drives higher GDP growth. 

The ratio of India’s working population to total population is currently higher than countries like China, Japan and Brazil. The population of these countries have already started to decline, while India’s working population will increase till 2045. It will also exceed China’s population by 2030. 

While having a large labour force is an opportunity for countries, translating it into high growth is not straightforward. India has not made significant headway in skilling and educating its workforce. And almost 83% of the workforce is employed in the unorganised sector. 

Employability of India’s workforce was 47.4% in 2019. It fell to 46.2% in 2022 due to the lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic owing to online classes, as well as long school and college closures. 

As India shifts from an agricultural nation to a manufacturing/services economy and an exporting powerhouse, policy-makers will have to focus on increasing employability, and bringing more people into the organized sector. It also needs to increase labour participation for women. India currently ranks 178 out of 187 countries in female workforce participation according to the World Bank and its female labour participation rate is 19%, among the lowest in the world.

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The Baseline
06 Sep 2022
Five analyst stock picks this week
By Suhas Reddy
  1. Aptus Value Housing Finance India: LKP Securities maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on this housing finance company with a target price of Rs 526, indicating an upside of 46.7%. Analyst Ajit Kumar Kabi believes the company is well-placed to capitalise on improving business conditions, given its robust cash positions and underwriting practices. The analyst further adds that the company’s return on assets (RoA) has been best-in-class among its peers on a high net interest margin (NIM) and with controlled operating expenses. He expects an NIM of 10.5% and a RoA of 7% in FY23.

Kabi says, “The company has a robust tech-driven customer acquisition platform and follows a stringent credit underwriting process”. He believes this has enabled the company to keep its net non-performing assets (NNPAs) below 1% for several years. Also, its collection efficacy surpassed the pre-covid level and stood at 101.2% in June. Kabi expects the company’s net profit to grow at a CAGR of 40.7% over FY22-24.

  1. Nippon Life India Asset Management: Axis Securities maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on this asset management company with a target price of Rs 360, indicating an upside of 20.9%. Analysts Sumit Rathi and Dnyanada Vaidya believe the firm’s growth trajectory is intact given rising inflows from tier 2 & 3 cities, and its strong distribution network. Its extensive distribution network enables it to penetrate the underpenetrated Indian market, the analysts added. The analysts also expect Nippon Life to expand its presence and scale up its offshore business via international tie-ups and partnerships.

Rathi and Vaidya notes, “Nippon Life has adopted a differentiation and low-cost approach and is focused on scaling up its Alternative Investment Fund (AIF)/ Portfolio Management Services (PMS) businesses''. They believe this strategy along with its strength in the retail segment resulted in the company amassing the largest investor base in the industry with 1.7 crore investor folios. The analysts expect the company’s net profit to grow at a CAGR of 9.9% over FY22-24.

  1. Jubilant Foodworks: Ashika Research maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on Jubilant Foodworks with a target price of Rs 710, indicating an upside of 17.4%. The brokerage expects the company’s revenue growth to accelerate as it believes customers are shifting to organised quick service restaurants (QSR) from unorganised ones. It believes the company will maintain its dominant position in the Indian QSR space as it is expanding its store network aggressively and diversifying its cuisine portfolio. The firm is also focusing on scaling up its international operations, it added.

The brokerage is bullish for the company as it won exclusive franchise rights to operate the Popeye’s brand restaurants in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. It believes the strategy to diversify its cuisine portfolio will also aid in market share expansion. The brokerage house said, “strong cost control and management commentary on aggressive store additions and thrust on digital & tech initiatives provide a strong growth outlook”. The broker expects the company’s profit to grow at a CAGR of 30.4% over FY22-24.

  1. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL): ICICI Securities maintains a ‘Buy’ call on this aircraft manufacturer and increases the target price to Rs 2,665. This indicates an upside of 12.1%. Abhijit Mitra, Mohit Lohia, and Pritish Urumkar point out that the order lineup for HAL over the next three years is worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore, which includes manufacturing orders worth Rs 45,000 crore. The company’s management is confident of maintaining 24-25% EBITDA margins and set its internal target of Rs 2,500 crore in export revenues by FY25. 

The analysts note, “The biggest certainty to our valuation is the order book, which is expected to cross Rs 1 lakh crore by FY22-23.” The defence company’s current order book stands at Rs 85,000 crore which includes a fresh order of Rs 6,000 crore in Q1FY23. They further add, “There are hardly any defence primes in the world which manufacture combat aircraft and have an equivalent book-to-bill ratio.”

  1. Grasim Industries: Motilal Oswal maintains a ‘Buy’ call on this cement producer with a target price of Rs 1,880, indicating an upside of 10.1%. “Garsim’s FY22 Annual Report highlights integration across the value-chain and diversification into new businesses,” say analysts Sanjeev Kumar Singh and Mudit Agarwal. 

The company’s standalone revenue increased 68% YoY to Rs 20,900 crore, EBITDA increased 105% YoY to Rs 3,200 crore and EBITDA margin increased by 2.8 basis points YoY to 15.4%. According to the analysts, “The improvement in performance was led by higher sales volume and better realisation, which was partly offset by a rise in raw material and input cost in H2FY22 amid a volatile external environment.”

Singh and Agarwal are positive on the cement manufacturer on the back of the company expanding capacity to cater to the growing demand across businesses and its foray into high growth businesses such as paints and B2B e-commerce.

Note: These recommendations are from various analysts and are not recommendations by Trendlyne.

Market closes flat, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank’s IPO gets bids for 1.5X of the total shares

Trendlyne Analysis

Nifty 50 closes flat, with the volatility index, India VIX, falling below 19.6%. Oil prices jump $3/bbl as OPEC+ plans to cut oil output targets by 100,000 bpd. Moody's retains India's sovereign credit rating at Baa3 (stable). India's gold imports in August halve on volatile prices and weak rupee. Vaibhav Jewellers files DHRP with SEBI to raise funds via IPO.

Nifty Midcap 100 trades in the green while Nifty Energy and Nifty Metal close higher than Monday’s levels.

Nifty 50closed at 17,651.60 (-14.2, -0.1%), BSE Sensexclosed at 59,196.99 (-49.0, -0.1%) while the broader Nifty 500closed at 15,311.70 (17.3, 0.1%)

Market breadth is in the red. Of the 1,921 stocks traded today, 866 were in the positive territory and 1,009 were negative.

  • Stocks like Housing and Urban Development Corp, India Cements, Tata Investment Corp, and Triveni Turbineare in the overbought zone, according to the relative strength index or RSI.

  • GMM Pfaudlerand KEI Industries hit their 52-week highs of Rs 2,110 and Rs 1,508.8, respectively. Both stocks rise for three consecutive sessions.

  • One97 Communications (Paytm) is rising as its loan disbursals during the two months of July-August grow 246% YoY to 60 lakhs, while the value of loans disbursed rises 484% YoY. Merchant payment volumes increase by 72% YoY to Rs 2.1 lakh crore for the two months.

  • Tamilnad Mercantile Bank’s Rs 831.6-crore IPO gets bids for 1.5X of the available 87.1 lakh shares on offer on the second day of bidding. The retail investor quota gets bids for 3.6X of the available 15.8 lakh shares on offer.

  • Tyre stocks are rising as demand from auto OEMs improves. The rise also comes from lower commodity, crude oil, and natural rubber prices.

  • GAIL (India) is rising ahead of the record date of bonus issue of shares. The record date is set for Wednesday.

  • Commercial Services & Supplies, Telecom Services, and Utilities' sectors rise more than 1.5% in trade today.

  • PSU Banks like Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, and Indian Overseas Bank, among others, are rising in trade. All constituents of the broader Nifty PSU Bankindex are trading in the green.

  • Syngene is falling as around 22.68 million equity shares trade at a price of Rs 585.8 per share in a block deal, according to reports.
  • Dreamfolks Services’ falls in trade even though it reports a net profit of Rs 13.4 crore in Q1FY23 against a loss of Rs 1.4 crore in Q1FY22. Its revenue jumps 6.5X YoY.

  • SRF rises in trade as Morgan Stanley reiterates its ‘Overweight’ rating with a target price of Rs 2,757. The company announced investments worth $2 billion for the next five years, out of which 80% will be focused on the chemicals segment.

  • RateGain Travel Technologies is rising as Kuwait-based Jazeera Airlines selects its pricing insights product AirGain. The company says its product will help the airline adjust prices with real-time and accurate airfare data.

  • Blue Star wins two orders worth Rs 390 crore from Bangalore Rail Corp for Reach-6 Pink line spanning of Bangalore Metro Rail Project Phase-II. The orders are turnkey projects including maintenance work for tunnel ventilation system (TVS), environmental control system (ECS) and electrical and mechanical works for stations and associated tunnel sections in the Reach-6 Pink line.

  • ICICI Securities maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on TTK Prestige with a target price of Rs 1,150. This indicates an upside of 16.2%. The brokerage remains positive on the long-term prospects of the company given its business model, market share gains from the unorganised sector, robust volume growth, and market leadership in key segments. It expects the company’s revenue to grow at a CAGR of 14% over FY22-24.

  • IT stocks like Tech Mahindra, Mindtree, Wipro, and Infosys, among others, are falling in trade. All constituents of the broader Nifty IT index are trading in the red.

  • Reliance Industries acquires a 79.4% stake in SenseHawk for $32 million (Rs 255.5 crore). SenseHawk is a US-based software developer of management tools for the solar energy generation industry.

  • Kalpataru Power Transmission receives new orders worth Rs 1,345 crore on a consolidated basis for metro rail electrification, pipeline laying works and other overseas projects.

  • Dreamfolks Services’ shares list at a 56% premium to the issue price of Rs 326, on its debut on the bourses. The Rs 562 -crore IPO was subscribed for 56.7 times the total shares on offer.

  • Jubilant Foodworks appoints Sameer Khetarpal as the new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. His appointment gets approved in the annual general meeting held on August 30, 2022.

  • HSBC Bank Mauritius (AC Jwalamukhi Investment Holdings) sells 13.9 lakh shares (7.04% stake) in V-Mart Retail for Rs 391.9 crore in a bulk deal. In another deal, Plutus Wealth Management buys 11.4 lakh shares (5.79% stake) in V-Mart Retail for Rs 322.3 crore.

  • NTPC acquires Jhabua Power for Rs 925 crore out of which Rs 325 crore is paid in equity. This acquisition helps NTPC grow its business inorganically. Jhabua Power has an operational capacity of 600 MW.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Varun Beverages Ltd. (1,093.75, 5.84%), Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd. (1,384.75, 4.84%) and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. (411.00, 4.66%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. (1,218.95, -3.40%), NHPC Ltd. (37.80, -2.83%) and Patanjali Foods Ltd. (1,286.40, -2.38%).

Volume Rockets

29 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included GMM Pfaudler Ltd. (2,068.20, 8.88%), Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals Ltd. (957.70, 7.86%) and Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd. (51.65, 7.72%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. (1,218.95, -3.40%), Syngene International Ltd. (565.25, -2.27%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (1,417.50, -1.57%).

Kalpataru Power Transmissions Ltd. (429.20, 6.22%) was trading at 14.2 times of weekly average. Esab India Ltd. (3,574.15, 7.15%) and Pfizer Ltd. (4,311.65, 0.80%) were trading with volumes 13.0 and 11.2 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

27 stocks took off, crossing 52-week highs, while 3 stocks were underachievers and hit their 52-week lows.

Stocks touching their year highs included - Apollo Tyres Ltd. (272.45, 7.01%), Ashok Leyland Ltd. (165.00, 0.24%) and Bank of Baroda (133.45, -0.30%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Biocon Ltd. (292.40, -0.14%) and MphasiS Ltd. (2,061.05, -1.50%).

18 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including Central Bank of India (20.60, 6.74%) and Angel One Ltd. (1,387.05, 3.50%). 6 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including La Opala RG Ltd. (332.65, -1.28%) and Eris Lifesciences Ltd. (693.30, -0.82%).

Market closes higher, ICICI Securities maintains ‘Add’ rating on Hindustan Unilever

Trendlyne Analysis

Nifty 50 closes in the green, with the volatility index, India VIX, rising to 19.7%. The Europe-wide STOXX 600 index fell 1.6% in today's trade as Russia continued its shutdown on a major gas pipeline to Europe. US indices ended lower on Friday owing to the European gas crises. India's services activity grew faster in August than in July. Blue Jet Healthcare files DRHP with SEBI for IPO.

Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 close in the green, tracking the benchmark index. Nifty Metal, Nifty Media and Nifty Bank close higher in today's session.

Nifty 50closed at 17,653.90 (114.5, 0.7%), BSE Sensexclosed at 59,245.98 (442.7, 0.8%) while the broader Nifty 500closed at 15,288.20 (86.6, 0.6%)

Market breadth is in the green. Of the 1,945 stocks traded today, 1,200 were in the positive territory and 705 were negative.

  • IDFC First Banksees a long build-up in its September 29 future series as its open interest rises 8.3% with put to call ratio of 0.75.

  • Ultratech Cement's current PE TTM ratio at 26.1 is lower than its 3-year, 5-year and 10-year PE ratios.

  • Bankstocks like Federal Bank, Bandhan Bank, Bank of Baroda among others are rising in trade. All constituents of the broader Nifty Bank index are trading in the green.

  • ABB India is falling as Credit Suisse downgrades the stock to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’ with a target price of Rs 2,600. The brokerage expects the possibility of a prolonged slowdown, delay in the pickup of investment activity in India, and geopolitical risks for exports to negatively impact the company.
  • Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and Timken India hit their 52-week highs of Rs 217 and Rs 3,310, respectively. Both stocks rise for four consecutive sessions.

  • Axis Securities upgrades Heidelberg Cement India to 'Buy' rating from 'Hold' with a target price of Rs 210. This indicates an upside of 10%. The brokerage expects that the company's focus on selling premium cement and maintaining a net debt free balance sheet will support its revenue and profitability growth. It estimates the company's revenue to grow at a CAGR of 11% over FY22-24.

  • Federal Bank hits a 52-week high in trade today as Nirmal Bang maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on the company and increases its target price to Rs 149. The brokerage remains bullish on the company’s prospects of improving financial performance, expanding into new markets, and a non-expensive valuation.
  • Tamilnad Mercantile Bank’ Rs 831.6-crore IPO gets bids for 83% of the available 87.1 lakh shares on offer on the first day of bidding. The retail investor quota gets bids for 1.5X of the available 15.8 lakh shares on offer.

  • ICICI Securities maintains its ‘Add’ rating on Hindustan Unilever with a target price of Rs 2,750. This indicates an upside of 5.6%. The brokerage remains positive about the medium and long-term prospects of the company given its market share gains, rising sales volume growth, and high focus on product quality. However, it expects high input costs to hurt the company’s profitability in the short term. The brokerage estimates the company’s net profit to grow at a CAGR of 13.4% over FY22-24.

  • Metalstocks like Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel, National Aluminium, and Steel Authority of Indiaare rising in trade. The broader sectoral index BSE Metalis also trading in green.

  • Aerospace, Telecom Cables, and IT Networking Equipment industries rise by more than 4% in trade today

  • Angel One is rising as its client base increases 81.9% YoY to 1.1 crore in August. Growth in average daily turnover (ADTO) of F&Os helps the overall ADTO to increase by 117.9% YoY to Rs 12.4 lakh crore.

  • India’s August trade deficit comes at $28.7 billion. Trade deficit remains elevated, despite improvement from its record high deficit in July of $30 billion. Imports rise to $61.68 billion while exports fall to $33 billion on fears of a slowdown in large export markets.

  • Dixon Technologies is rising as it signs an agreement with Google to sub-license rights relating to Android and Google TV. The company says this new partnership will enable it to improve its product offering, and further strengthen its market leadership in the LED TV category.

  • Media stocks like Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Sun TV Network, PVR, Saregama India and Network 18 Media & Investments are rising in trade. The broader sectoral index Nifty Media is also trading in the green.

  • Reliance Power is rising as the company and its subsidiaries enter into a MoU with Varde Partners. The MoU is to avail debt of up to Rs 1,200 crore. The amount will be used for settlement/discharge or to acquire and restructure Reliance Power's debts.

  • India’s August Services Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) rises to 57.2 compared to 55.5 in July, because of an increase in new business arising from favourable demand conditions and advertising.

  • Tamilnad Mercantile Bank raises Rs 363.5 crore from investors by selling 71.28 lakh equity shares for Rs 510 per share. Investors include Nomura, Societe Generale, Max Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, among others.

  • Paytm is falling in trade even though it clarifies to the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) that the merchant entities under investigation are independent entities and none of them are its group entities. The ED has instructed the company to freeze certain amounts from the merchant IDs of a specific set of merchant entities. The company says that none of the funds which are instructed to be frozen belongs to it or any of its group companies.

  • Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) buys a 0.5% stake (9.4 lakh shares) in ACC for Rs 215.6 crore in a bulk deal on Friday. In another deal, Societe General – ODI buys a 0.53% stake (3.2 lakh shares) in PVR for Rs 60.1 crore.

  • Hindustan Aeronautics and Larsen & Toubro win an order from NewSpace India – the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, according to reports. The order is worth Rs 860 crore to build five rockets.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Tube Investments of India Ltd. (2,487.85, 8.53%), Schaeffler India Ltd. (3,320.30, 5.68%) and Patanjali Foods Ltd. (1,317.80, 4.91%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Gland Pharma Ltd. (2,472.80, -3.64%), Dr. Lal Pathlabs Ltd. (2,369.20, -2.87%) and Adani Power Ltd. (389.85, -2.84%).

Movers and Shakers

25 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included Suzlon Energy Ltd. (10.55, 19.89%), Vakrangee Ltd. (32.90, 19.42%) and Exide Industries Ltd. (172.40, 8.16%).

Top high volume loser on BSE was V-Mart Retail Ltd. (2,888.35, -3.72%).

Triveni Turbine Ltd. (231.25, 8.09%) was trading at 14.0 times of weekly average. Engineers India Ltd. (71.90, 6.05%) and Cera Sanitaryware Ltd. (5,288.65, 7.31%) were trading with volumes 9.9 and 9.2 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

26 stocks overperformed with 52-week highs, while 3 stocks tanked below their 52-week lows.

Stocks touching their year highs included - AIA Engineering Ltd. (2,585.75, -0.42%), Ashok Leyland Ltd. (164.60, 0.58%) and Bank of Baroda (133.85, 2.06%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (640.00, -0.61%) and Biocon Ltd. (292.80, -0.95%).

25 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including Suzlon Energy Ltd. (10.55, 19.89%) and TCNS Clothing Co. Ltd. (699.00, 5.41%). 6 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Syngene International Ltd. (578.35, -2.64%) and Power Finance Corporation Ltd. (114.45, -1.25%).

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The Baseline
03 Sep 2022
Reliance Jio v/s Bharti Airtel: Who will win the 5G war?
By Deeksha Janiani

India registered strong double-digit GDP growth in the first quarter of FY23. But the 13.5% growth rate is lower than RBI's estimate of 16.2%. India faces multiple speedbumps - rising interest rates, uneven monsoons - but is better placed than developed countries that are struggling with high inflation, and China with its self-goals of city-wide Covid lockdowns.

A rebound in the services sector has helped deliver India's Q1 growth. Within services, a Big Two rivalry in a key industry - telecom - is driving a big cycle of spending.

In this week’s Analyticks:

  • Reliance Jio v/s Bharti Airtel: Who will win the 5G war?
  • Screener: Companies outperforming their industry in returns on capital, and growth

Let’s get into it.


Will Reliance Jio's 5G launch help it gain over Bharti Airtel?

For businesses, the rise of a new technology is a fresh chance to win market share. And it looks like Reliance Jio is counting on its 5G rollout to build a massive lead over its competitors. Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced a special Diwali present for Indians in the 45thannual general meeting of Reliance IndustriesIf you are a Reliance Jio user living in any of the four metros or major cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune, you will be able to  access 5G technology by this Diwali.

5G opens the door to much faster data. While 4G gives us a download speed of upto 150 mbps, 5G offers speeds of upto 10 gbps, nearly 67 times higher. The upload speed is also 20 times higher than that of 4G. People living in smaller cities and towns are expected to get Jio 5G by December 2023. 

This ambitious plan comes at a hefty price tag for Reliance. 

The company will incur a capital expenditure of Rs 2 lakh crore via its telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm, to roll out 5G services. The planned capex spend includes Rs 88,078 crore spent on the 5G spectrum auction held recently. The remaining amount is earmarked for setting up 5G network infrastructure. 

Notably, the spectrum cost is evenly spread out over a period of 20 years. So including two spectrum installments, Reliance Jio is set to spend over Rs 1.25 lakh crore on the rollout of 5G services in the next 18 months. This is 20% more than the last three years of combined capex for Jio.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel is also focusing on its 5G rollout plans. The telecom major plans to cover the entire country with its 5G services by the end of March 2024, at half the cost Reliance is spending.

According to its recent earnings call, Bharti will incur a capex for the next three years similar to what it spent between FY20 and FY22 - which is around Rs 75,000 crore. The majority of the capex will be spent in the next 18 months itself. 

Now, the key question is: which of these telecom majors will emerge as the more successful 5G service provider?

Throwing money at the problem, and winning: Reliance Jio’s lightning fast growth in the last five years

Thanks to its parent company’s deep pockets, Reliance Jio witnessed massive network expansion as well as revenue growth (which jumped 4X) in just five years. This growth was fueled by the doubling of its total subscriber base, which crossed the 40 crore mark in FY21. In fact, Jio surpassed Airtel on this metric by FY20, within three years of its 4G launch. 

However, this blockbuster growth came at a high capex cost for Reliance Jio. The subsidiary saw negative free cash flows of over Rs 1.10 lakh crore between FY18 and FY20, backed by higher investments. It finally generated positive free cash flows in FY21, only to see them fall materially in FY22.

Now Jio is embarking on another capex cycle, which may once again strain its free cash flows. 

At the consolidated level, Reliance Industries generated operating cash flows of around Rs 1.10 lakh crore in FY22. This should give some comfort to investors for planned 5G investments if we assume a similar level for FY23.

However, there are also other competing investments. The company announced fresh investments of Rs 75,000 crore in the oils to chemical business. There are more long-term commitments on the new energy side which are over Rs 6.5 lakh crore. So there is a good chance that the company may see negative free cash flows for FY23 and look for external sources of funding. 

Reliance Jio is going for a costlier 5G approach. But is the price tag worth it?

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have chosen two different approaches to deploy 5G technology. Airtel is going for the cheaper, and globally accepted non-stand-alone approach while Jio is opting for the stand-alone approach.

In Airtel's non-stand-alone (NSA) approach, a telecom operator delivers the 5G radio signal over existing 4G network infrastructure.  A standalone (SA) 5G network on the other hand, runs on an entirely new network infrastructure (say new radio towers) which requires higher capital investments. 

Jio will develop this new infrastructure in-house and leverage its partnership with Qualcomm. The advantage of going for the SA structure is that it offers ultra-low latency which basically means minimal time lag in data transfer. This makes it suitable for applications in remote surgeries, gaming and robotics. 

However, the challenge here is that the ecosystem for this structure is not yet developed. Very few mobile phones can actually support a 5G SA structure. 

To enable the new structure, Jio acquired the highly expensive 700 MHz frequency waves along with the 3.3 GHz waves in the recent spectrum auction. This may not give Jio much of an advantage. According to Nokia, the 700 MHz band does offer better area coverage but the speed is only a little bit better than 4G. The same sentiments were echoed by Gopal Vittal in the recent earnings call

The difference in these approaches explains why Airtel will roll-out 5G services at half the capex cost of Reliance Jio. Airtel can always opt for the advanced SA structure later on once the ecosystem is well established and there is evidence of higher revenue per user (ARPU).

Currently, none of the global telecom operators are making any incremental ARPU on the service, and it does make sense to wait and watch before going all out for an expensive architecture. 

We won't know right away which strategy will pay off. Will Jio grab a higher share in the subscriber base and better ARPU with 5G, or will Airtel, the more 'sensible' player, win out? Analysts, meanwhile, anticipate a higher jump in Bharti Airtel’s net profits in next two years.


Screener: Sector outperformers in capital returns and revenue growth

This screener reflects stocks which outperformed the industry on annual return on capital employed (ROCE), return on equity (ROE), annual net profit growth and revenue growth. 

It is dominated by stocks from the pharmaceutical industry and also includes stocks from auto parts and equipments and footwear. Major stocks featured in this screener are Divi’s Laboratories, Tube Investments, Ajanta Pharma and Metro Brands.

Divi’s Laboratories outperformed the pharmaceutical industry annual ROCE by 9.4 percentage points as well as surpassed the annual revenue YoY growth of the industry by 18.5 percentage points. Growth in the custom synthesis segment and efforts towards backward integration and debottlenecking aided this outperformance. 

Tube Investments outperformed the auto parts industry in annual ROCE by nearly 10 percentage points and in annual revenue growth by over 80 percentage points. Its revenue growth was primarily driven by its engineering business which did well owing to market share gains and doubling of exports.

Metro Brands outperformed the footwear industry in annual revenue growth by 18.1 percentage points. This is helped by the growth in sales volumes due to reopening of offices , festive and the wedding season. Its annual PE TTM is also lower than the industry average. This has helped the stock to outperform the industry returns by 18 percentage points. 

You can find some popular screeners here.

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The Baseline
02 Sep 2022
Five Interesting Stocks Today
  1. Inox Leisure: This leading multiplex operator laid out its expansion plans in its annual report released on August 30.  However, this failed to move the needle materially in the market and the stock only gained 2% in the subsequent two trading sessions. Inox Leisure seeks to open around 60 additional screens in the remaining part of FY23, after having launched 44 screens in Q1FY23. This is 35% more than its initial target for the year. Additionally, Inox aims to open around 834 screens after FY23 which would take its total screen count to over 1,500 in the longer term. This is likely to further strengthen the market position of the soon-to-be merged entity of PVR INOX.

However, the market is skeptical about the sustenance of high footfalls in cinemas, in the age of streaming. Although Inox Leisure’s footfalls comfortably crossed the pre-Covid levels in Q1FY23, the response to recent Bollywood releases has been rather lukewarm. Big-ticket films like Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhanfailed to appeal to the masses. With the advent of OTT platforms, only superior content like that of RRR, KGF 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 are driving the audience back to the cinemas. With the target audience having access to multiple digital modes of entertainment including Instagram, and YouTube, theaters are having to compete hard for customer attention and wallet share, as noted by Inox in its latest annual report. This is a major risk factor for multiplex chains mulling future expansions.

Another factor going against Inox is therecent complaint of a non-profit organization namely CUTS to Competition Commission of India against its proposed merger with PVR. Now, Inox is caught up in its own drama -  all eyes are on the upcoming releases of Brahmastra, Vikram Vedha as well as the response of CCI to this complaint.

  1. Spicejet: This airline company’s stock price fell over 3% on Thursday post its Q4FY22 and Q1FY23 results announcement. The company had cited a ransomware cyber attack on its IT systems as the reason for the delay in announcing results. In Q1FY23, the airline’s losses widened to Rs 789 crore compared to a loss of Rs 729 crore in the same period the previous year. This is despite its revenue jumping over 2X YoY in Q1FY23 on a low base, due to the pandemic Q1 last year.

Record high fuel prices and the depreciating Indian rupee impacted the bottom line. The company’s losses widened YoY in Q4FY22 as well, leading to a cash crunch at the airline. As a result, Spicejet delayed salaries for the second month in a row, according to reports. The company also announced the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer Sanjeev Taneja with effect from Wednesday.

The disappointing results come after Spicejet’s Chairman Ajay Singh said that the airline is looking to raise around Rs 2,000 crore. In reaction, its share price rose over 3% on August 23. In the past month, the stock price has risen over 20% and mutual funds also increased their shareholding in this company. Despite the widening losses, the management remains optimistic on the back of a fresh capital inflow of Rs 2,000 crore. It also said that Spicejet had the highest domestic passenger load factor (86.4%) in the industry in Q1FY23. To conserve costs,  the company plans to induct more fuel-efficient Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft amid elevated fuel prices.

  1. ABB India: This heavy electrical equipment stock has been rising for the past five sessions. It rose 2% on Tuesday and touched an all-time high of Rs 3,273.2. This comes after the company announced the launch of its ‘Smart Power Portfolio’ in its Bangalore plant. With the new system in place, ABB India will focus on providing better automation services, especially to its manufacturing clients. This stock is in demand as it also shows up on the screener of stocks overbought on MFI (money flow index) and RSI (relative strength index).

After market hours on Tuesday, the company announced itsdivestment in Turbocharging Industries and Services India for a consideration of Rs 355 crore. It was earlier valued at Rs 310 crore, according to reports. The stock rose 4% in trade on Thursday after this and touched a new 52-week high of Rs 3,429.3.

Although the company reported a rise of 99.6% YoY innet profit, brokerages do not seem particularly enthused with the Q2CY22 results. According to Trendlyne’s consensus recommendation, 14 recommend a buy while 8 recommend a ‘Hold’ and one recommends ‘Sell’ on the stock in August. This is due to the short-term nature of the orders received by the company.

HDFC Securities maintains a ‘Sell’ on the stock as it wants to assess the growth of the company despite the surge in short-term orders, profit and revenue to make sure that further upcycle of the stock is not hindered. Prabhudas Lilladher and Geojit BNP Paribas remain cautious and maintain ‘Accumulate’ on the stock as they see long-term growth with an increase in capex, price hikes, increase in clients and improving exports.

Interestingly, ABB India’s Managing Director Sanjeev Sharma on Tuesdaysaid that the company is not seeing any slowdown in orders and is focused on building upon opportunities arising from the domestic demand.

  1. Biocon:This biotechnology company is making news in the stock market - but for all the wrong reasons. On August 25, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against five officials of Biocon's arm Biocon Biologics in an alleged bribery case, according to reports. The stock traded flat immediately after this news; however, it was one of the top loser stocks on Thursday, falling more than 2.5% in trade.

Biocon touched a 52-week low of Rs 297.5 on Thursday after an inspection report was given by the US FDA. According to the company’sfiling, the US FDA issued Form 483 (a form issued by the regulator when it observes a violation of the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act) with 11 observations for two sites in Bangalore and six observations for the Malaysia site. According to the filing, the company needs to work on improving its microbial control at the plant sites, enhance quality oversight and work on revamping software that supports risk identification and assessment.

With all this going on, the stock appears on thescreener where two brokers downgraded their target price for the stock while one downgraded its rating in the past month. However, the consensus recommendation for the stock by 14 analysts is ‘Buy’, according to the Forecaster consensus recommendation. Four analysts maintain ‘Hold’ and four maintain a ‘Sell’ on the stock.

  1. Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders: This shipping company outperformed the Nifty 500 by 27.4% over the past week till Thursday. The surge in the stock comes on a robust business outlook as the Ministry of Defence approved a positive indigenisation list on Monday, according to reports. The list follows two previous lists approved in December 2021 and March 2022. This list contains 780 items which will be indigenised and procured domestically over a period of time. The management believes it is well placed to benefit from the push for indigenisation as it is the only manufacturer of destroyers and submarines in India. So far, it has been successful in indigenising its ships as the percentage of locally produced components in the ships it builds has steadily increased to 75% from 42% in the 1990s, according to ICICI Securities.

The company’s strongQ1FY23 results have also aided positive price movement. Its net profit jumped 2.2X YoY to Rs 224.8 crore and revenue rose 83.7% YoY. Since releasing its Q1 results on August 10, the stock has risen by 42%. Due to this surge in share price the company made it to a screener that lists stocks which are overbought in the Money Flow Index.

For the remainder of FY23, the company has an order book of Rs 43,343 crore and expects the order inflow to increase over the coming years. In the long term, the management has two major projects involving the construction of submarines and new generation destroyers, with a combined value of Rs 93,000 crore. The management has guided revenue growth of 15-20% going ahead in FY23.

Trendlyne's analysts identify stocks that are seeing interesting price movement, analyst calls, or new developments. These are not buy recommendations.

Market closes higher, ICICI Securities downgrades rating on SRF to 'Hold' from 'Add

Trendlyne Analysis

Indian indices closed flat after gyrating between losses and gains, with the volatility index, India VIX, at around 20%. European stocks traded in the green as investors look ahead to the US monthly jobs data release later today. However, most major Asian indices closed in the red, despite the US indices closing in the green on Thursday. The US indices snapped their four-day losing streak and closed marginally higher on a volatile day of trade. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% while the Dow Jones closed 0.5% higher. Brent crude oil futures traded higher after falling around 12% in the past three trading sessions.

Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 closed in the red, despite the benchmark index closing flat. Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty closed lower than Thursday’s levels. Nifty IT closed in the red, despite the NASDAQ 100 closing flat on Thursday.

Nifty 50 closed at 17,527.85 (-15.0, -0.1%) , BSE Sensex closed at 58,803.33 (36.7, 0.1%) while the broader Nifty 500 closed at 15,191.25 (-20.0, -0.1%)

Market breadth is in the red. Of the 1,925 stocks traded today, 801 were gainers and 1,066 were losers.

  • Stocks like Rites, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Cochin Shipyard, Poly Medicure, and Sterlite Technologies are in the overbought zone, according to the Money Flow Index or MFI.

  • HBL Power Systems is rising as it wins multiple orders for the deployment of the train protection system Kavach. The orders have a combined value of Rs 753.9 crore.

  • ICICI Securities downgrades SRF to 'Hold' rating from 'Add' with a target price of Rs 2,460, indicating a downside of 3.2%. The brokerage downgrades the stock due to the recent run-up in stock price and near-term pressures in the chemical business. It expects the company's revenue to grow at a CAGR of 10.2% over FY22-24.

  • Spicejet is rising as it is set to receive Rs 225 crore as part of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), according to reports. The airline will use this funding to clear statutory dues and payments to lessors.

  • Cochin Shipyard rises for eight consecutive sessions and hits a 52-week high of Rs 394.3. This comes after the Prime Minister commissions India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier – INS Vikrant in the Navy in Cochin, Kerala. INS Vikrant will meet the Navy's third aircraft carrier needs.

  • FMCG sector rises over the past month as its market grows 6% MoM in August after consecutive declines in the past months, according to reports. Rise in demand for personal care and commodity products aid the growth of FMCG market. Trendlyne's Dashboard shows that FMCG sector rose 1.4% over the past month.

  • Ashika Research maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on Tata Consultancy Services with a target price of Rs 3,650. This indicates an upside of 13.8%. The brokerage believes the company is well-equipped to withstand the weakening business environment given its order book and high exposure to long-duration contracts. It expects the company’s net profit to grow at a CAGR of 11.8% over FY22-24.

  • GMR Infrastructure is rising as its subsidiary GMR Airports International BV (GAIBV) inks a pact with Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC) to acquire shares in GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp (GMCAC)- a JV between GAIBV and Megawide Construction Corp. The companies will sell their existing stake in GMCAC to AIC at an enterprise value of Rs 7,050 crore.

  • UPL appoints Mike Frank as the Chief Executive Officer of UPL’s Global Crop Protection business which manages all crop protection assets outside of India.

  • Hero MotoCorp’s August wholesales rise 1.9% YoY to 4.62 lakh units, led by a 2.4% YoY growth in motorcycle wholesales. The company expects the demand environment to improve in the coming months on account of the festive season, better monsoons, and positive consumer sentiments.

  • NTPC hits a 52-week high of Rs 166.4, after ArcelorMittal, Brookfield, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, among others, express an interest to buy a stake in its arm NTPC Green Energy.

  • Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone is rising as its cargo volumes in August rises 18% YoY to 29.3 million metric tonnes (MMT). From April 2022 to August 2022, the company handled 151.4 MMT of cargo, indicating a growth of 11% YoY.

  • Shree Cements is falling as the National Stock Exchange (NSE) removes the stock from Nifty 50 in its semi-annual rearrangement of stocks. Adani Enterprises will replace Shree Cements in the Nifty 50 list from September 30.

  • The National Stock Exchange (NSE), as part of its periodic review, rearranges a few stocks in the Nifty Next 50.

  • Promoter Sunita Sandip Gupta sells a 1.07% stake (6.7 lakh shares) in Route Mobile for Rs 96.7 crore in a bulk deal on Thursday.

  • General Atlantic Singapore sells a 2.07% stake (16.6 lakh shares) in Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) for Rs 204.2 crore in a bulk deal on Thursday. In another deal, Emerald Investments picked up a 1.96% stake (15.7 lakh shares) in KIMS for Rs 193.1 crore.

  • Eicher Motors’ arm Royal Enfield’s August wholesales rise 53% YoY to 70,112 units. The company’s CEO says that the increase in sales is because of the launch of its new bike at the beginning of the month.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Astral Ltd. (2,314.45, 6.12%), Patanjali Foods Ltd. (1,256.15, 4.18%) and Adani Enterprises Ltd. (3,355.80, 3.79%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Zomato Ltd. (59.75, -4.32%), Tata Elxsi Ltd. (8,707.25, -3.47%) and Coromandel International Ltd. (1,045.40, -3.35%).

Movers and Shakers

22 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included EIH Ltd. (187.95, 17.76%), TCNS Clothing Co. Ltd. (663.15, 11.75%) and GMM Pfaudler Ltd. (1,825.80, 10.29%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were Honeywell Automation India Ltd. (42,202.45, -1.72%), Akzo Nobel India Ltd. (1,940.35, -0.73%) and Finolex Industries Ltd. (147.20, -0.54%).

Sheela Foam Ltd. (3,242.90, 8.50%) was trading at 9.8 times of weekly average. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. (284.05, 7.78%) and FDC Ltd. (273.60, 2.82%) were trading with volumes 8.1 and 8.0 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

30 stocks hit their 52 week highs, while 3 stocks were underachievers and hit their 52 week lows.

Stocks touching their year highs included - Ashok Leyland Ltd. (163.65, 0.55%), Bank of Baroda (131.15, -1.72%) and Bharat Electronics Ltd. (324.55, 1.49%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Biocon Ltd. (295.60, -1.99%) and Natco Pharma Ltd. (608.80, -1.02%).

12 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including Sheela Foam Ltd. (3,242.90, 8.50%) and Varroc Engineering Ltd. (380.25, 7.40%). 7 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Dhanuka Agritech Ltd. (718.95, -2.47%) and DCM Shriram Ltd. (1,023.00, -2.25%).