Trendlyne Analysis

Nifty 50 closed marginally lower to end the week in red amid high volatility. All other Asian indices ended the day in red except the Shanghai SE Composite Index. Investors continue to be on the fence as the geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine remained the theme of the week along with the US Federal Reserve's rate hike expectations.

Nifty Next 50 and Nifty Smallcap 100 extended their losses and closed in the red. Nifty Pharma and Nifty Energy ended the day lower, underperforming the benchmark index. Nifty IT, which traded in the green earlier, gave up its gains to finally settle lower.

Nifty 50 closed at 17,276.30 (-28.3, -0.2%), BSE Sensex closed at 57,832.97 (-59.0, -0.1%) while the broader Nifty 500 closed at 14,710.70 (-61.4, -0.4%)

Market breadth is highly negative. Of the 1,858 stocks traded today, 491 were on the uptrend, and 1,342 went down.

• Kansai Nerolac, Bayer Cropscience, TeamLease Services and Solar Industries are trading with higher volumes as compared to Thursday.

• Hinduja Global Solutions will acquire NXT Digital’s media business in an all-stock deal with a share swap ratio of 20:63. Hinduja Global Solutions will issue 20 equity shares of Rs 10 per share for every 63 equity shares of NDL of Rs 10 per share. The management says the acquisition will enable the company to actively digitalize.

• Axis Securities maintains a ‘BUY’ rating on PNC Infratech with a target price of Rs 385, indicating an upside of 39%. The brokerage remains positive on the company as it has a strong order book of Rs 12,055 crore, indicating revenue visibility for the next two years. The brokerage expects the company’s revenue to grow at 17% CAGR over FY21-24E.

• Ambuja Cements is trading with more than five times its weekly average trading volume. CSB Bank, Elgi Equipments, Thermax and Grindwell Norton are trading at more than three times their weekly average trading volumes.

• Crisil Rating’s study on housing-finance companies (HFC) suggests that gross NPAs rose to 3.3% in Q3FY22 because of RBI’s new NPA classification norms. Without this, GNPAs would be close to 2.6%, impacting HFCs by 70 bps. Although RBI extends its deadline for implementing the new norms till September 30, 2022, Crisil Ratings’ Director believes that HFCs are unlikely to go back to the old regime of NPA calculation.

• UBS upgrades its rating on Bharti Airtel to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’, according to reports. The brokerage has a target price of Rs 855, indicating an upside of 19.2%. The brokerage is bullish on the company as its 4G subscription base grows by 30 million to 192.5 million, the highest in the industry. The company also lost the least number of subscribers in December 2021 at 0.6 million users in compared to Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea which lost 8.5 million and 5.8 million customers, respectively.

• Rating agency Crisil upgrades the credit rating on long-term bank facilities of Torrent Power to 'CRISIL AA+/Stable' from 'CRISIL AA/Positive'. This upgrade comes on the back of a strong EBITDA growth of 12% YoY posted by the company for nine months ended December 31, 2021 and reduction in Net Debt/EBITDA ratio to 1.7X from 2X in FY21 end

• Motilal Oswal maintains a ‘BUY’ rating on Ipca Laboratories with a target price of Rs. 1,160, indicating an upside of 18.2%. The brokerage expects the company to sustain its growth momentum in the Indian markets. In Q3FY22, Indian formulations revenue grew 23% YoY to Rs 645.2 crore.

• Coal India supplies 575 metric tonne of coal till February 16, 2022 against annual supply of 574.5 metric tonne in previous year. Power plants supply rises 23% to 468.4 metric tonne till February 16, 22 against 381 metric tonne of corresponding period last year.

• Hindustan Unilever hikes prices of soaps, detergents and dish wash brands like Lux, Rexona, Ponds, Surf Excel, Vim Bar and liquid by 3-10% this month. The company is increasing prices of its products in every month since October 2021 to deal with inflationary pressures

• Lupin receives US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for the usage of its antibiotic Solosec. The antibiotic is used in adolescents to treat certain infections, including sexually transmitted infections.

• Ambuja Cements Q4CY21 net profit falls 55.5% YoY to Rs 431 crore as surging fuel costs impact earnings. EBITDA fell 23.4% YoY to Rs 1,128 crore and EBITDA margins fell 5 bps to 15%. However, revenue from operations rise 2.1% YoY to Rs 7,709.6 crore as net sales improve marginally because of low demand in multiple regions by 2.1% YoY to Rs 7,503 crore.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (2,663.95, 2.76%), Voltas Ltd. (1,252.50, 2.71%) and Coal India Ltd. (167.30, 2.61%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Ambuja Cements Ltd. (338.35, -5.96%), Gland Pharma Ltd. (3,217.50, -4.90%) and Motherson Sumi Systems Ltd. (158.40, -4.89%).

Movers and Shakers

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

Top high volume gainers on BSE included Elgi Equipments Ltd. (393.60, 4.88%), Aster DM Healthcare Ltd. (189.85, 4.17%) and Thermax Ltd. (1,867.55, 3.42%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were Ambuja Cements Ltd. (338.35, -5.96%), CSB Bank Ltd. (232.50, -2.13%) and Grindwell Norton Ltd. (1,557.40, -2.12%).

EID Parry (India) Ltd. (411.05, -0.75%) was trading at 3.1 times of weekly average.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

1 stock hit their 52-week highs, while 16 stocks were underachievers and hit their 52-week lows.

Stock touching their year highs included - Adani Green Energy Ltd. (2,041.85, -0.28%).

Stocks making new 52 weeks lows included - Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (700.20, -2.03%) and Cadila Healthcare Ltd. (376.55, -1.66%).

4 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including MOIL Ltd. (176.75, 4.15%) and Orient Electric Ltd. (344.70, 2.70%). 10 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Shipping Corporation of India Ltd. (116.80, -2.95%) and Cholamandalam Financial Holdings Ltd. (665.00, -2.58%).