Stocks To Watch: Hotel Leelaventure, L&T, Mindtree, RCom

Asian equities fell at the open Tuesday as traders awaited central bank meetings amid expectations of dovish signals to monetary policy.

Stocks dropped in Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul. Futures pointed to a flat start to trading in Hong Kong. The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, rose 0.17 percent to 11,520 as of 7:30 a.m.

Short on time? Well, then listen to this podcast for a quick summary of All You Need To know before the opening bell.

Here Are The Stocks To Watch Out For In Today’s Trade

• Larsen & Toubro seeks to buy a controlling stake in Mindtree after it entered into an agreement with Coffee Day Enterprises founder VG Siddhartha to buy his 20.3 percent shareholding in the mid-sized information technology firm. In a three-step transaction, L&T will get between 20.3 to 66.3 percent of Mindtree at a total cost of up to Rs 10,730 crore.
• Hotel Leelaventure said it will sell four Leela hotels in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Udaipur to a Brookfield-sponsored private real estate fund for Rs 3,950 crore, according to a stock exchange filing. The above four hotels contribute nearly 80 percent of the total income and 88 percent of the total net worth of the company.
• HCL Technologies entered into a shared services arrangement with Xerox Corporation pursuant to which Xerox will outsource certain global administrative and support functions from HCL. The transaction revenue over the course of seven years will be $1.3 billion.
• HDFC considered issuing rupee bonds to overseas investors under its medium-term note program. The terms of this bond issue are to be decided on or after March 22.
• Pidilite Industries’ P Ganesh resigned from the post of CFO with effect from May 24.
• Adani Ports approved a buy-back of NCDs worth Rs 1,400 crore.
• Majesco acquired insurance software business from its parent company Majesco Ltd.
• Canara Bank said it will raise long-term foreign currency funds worth Rs $500 million under its medium-term notes program. They will meet investors between March 19-20 for this program.
• BEML said it will consider interim dividend on March 21 with a record date set for March 29.
• Voltas launched adjustable inverter air conditioner range which allows the use to switch from 1.5 ton to 1 ton capacity and vice versa, depending on the ambient heat or number of people.
• Aarti Industries said it will raise funds via qualified institutional buyers and will approve the price of equity shares to be allotted to QIP on March 22.
• The Reserve Bank of India renewed authorization issued to the Vakrangee for white label ATMs
• Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio terminated their agreement for sale of specified assets by mutual consent. Next date on hearing in this matter is set for April 8.
• Allahabad Bank board said it will consider raising equity capital on March 26.
• Vedanta said two people were killed in protests in its Odisha alumina refinery
• IGSEC Heavy Engineering fixed March 29 as record date for share split of 1:10.
• Hindustan Aeronautics declared a dividend of Rs 19.8 per share, with a record date on March 29
• Tata Motors clarified that JLR made voluntary recall of vehicles due to carbon dioxide issue, cost associated with this step were not material. (Bloomberg News)

Bulk Deals

• Dewan Housing Finance: PGGM World Equity BV acquired 25.17 lakh shares or 0.80 percent equity at Rs 136.55 each.
• Justdial: Morgan Stanley France SAS acquired 4.07 lakh shares or 0.63 percent equity at Rs 639.34 each.
• Reliance Infrastructure: PGGM World Equity BV acquired 14.6 lakh shares or 0.57 percent equity at Rs 135.93 each.

Pledge Share Details

• Jindal Steel & Power promoter group OPJ Trading revokes pledge of 3 lakh shares.
• Bajaj Consumer Care promoter Bajaj Resources creates a pledge of 1.12 lakh shares.

(As Reported on March 18)

Trading Tweaks

• NTPC ex-date for bonus share at 1:5.
• Dhampure Speciality Sugars to move int ASM Framework.

Stocks Moving Into Short-Term ASM Framework

• IFB Agro Industries
• Mercator
• AXISCADES Engineering Technologies
• IIFL Holdings
• Indiabulls Integrated Services
• MT Educare
• Skipper
• Jindal Stainless
• Manpasand Beverages
• GVK Power & Infrastructure
• Khadim
• Matrimony.Com
• CESC Ventures
• Religare Enterprises
• Sadbhav Engineering

Who’s Meeting Whom

• Tata Chemicals to meet NVS Brokerage on March 19.
• PI Industries to meet Canara HSBC Life Insurance on March 19.
• Shriram City Union Finance to meet Emkay Global on March 20.

Insider Trading

• Spencer’s Retail promoter Rainbow Investments acquired 4 lakh shares on March 15
• Power Mech Projects promoter Sajja Kishore Babu HUF sold 1 lakh shares on March 15
• Mukand promoter group Bachhraj Factories acquired 70,000 shares from March 13 -14
• Alembic promoter group Nirayu Private acquired 1 lakh shares from March 14-15
• Nava Bharat Ventures promoter groups acquired 45,000 shares from March 14-15

Money Market Update

• The rupee on Monday strengthened for the sixth straight session to its highest since August 2018 to close at 68.53/$. Friday’s closing was at 69.09/$.

F&O Cues

• Nifty March Futures closed trading at 11494, premium of 32 points.
• Max OI for March series at 11,500 Call, OI at 25.4 lakh shares.
• Max OI for March series at 11,000 Put, OI at 38.3 lakh shares.

Stocks In F&O Ban

• In Ban: Adani Enterprises, BEML, IDBI, Just Dial, Jet Airways, Reliance Power, Reliance Capital
• New in Ban: BEML, Just Dial, Reliance Power
• Out of Ban: Reliance Infrastructure

Put-Call Ratio

• Nifty PCR at 1.77 versus 1.68

Brokerage Radar

Spark on Real Estate

• Oberoi Realty: Initiated ‘Reduce’ with a price target of Rs 470.
• Persistent pain in Mumbai premium residential segment.
• Godrej Properties: Initiated ‘Add’ with a price target of Rs 700.
• Aggressive project additions provide strong volume visibility
• Sobha: Upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Add’; hiked price target to Rs 500 from Rs 470.
• Strong launch pipeline, volume growth and strong execution record.
• Prestige Estates: Upgraded to ‘Buy’ From ‘Sell’; hiked price target to Rs 300 from Rs 165.
• Residential business expected to see traction; debt to peak out by the current financial year.

ICICI Securities on Alembic Pharma

• Maintained ‘Add’; cut price target to Rs 610 from Rs 656.
• Believe near term earnings pressure would remain.
• Believe profitability would be impacted over next two years with new facilities getting started.
• Cut earnings estimates by 3-10 percent for FY20-21.

HDFC Securities on Print Media

• Expect recovery in ad revenue growth and benign newsprint costs.
• Robust free cash flows and high dividend pay-out to support valuations.
• DB Corp: Initiated ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 282.
• Expect revenue, Ebitda and net profit to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.5 percent, 21 percent and 25 percent respectively over FY19-21.
• Jagran Prakashan: Initiated ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 148.
• Expect revenue, Ebitda and net profit to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 6 percent, 16 percent and 21 percent respectively over FY19-21.

Jefferies on ICICI Lombard

• Initiated ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 1,136.
• Expect strong demand for consumer-oriented products and low correlation to markets.
• Long-term motor insurance RoE accretive; expect benefits over FY19-21.
• Well positioned to deliver RoE’s in excess of 20 percent.
• Expect book value and net profit to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 19 percent and 25 percent respectively over FY19-21.

Haitong on HDFC Bank

• Initiated ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 2,615.
• Infrastructure in place for next phase of growth; developed sustainable economic moats.
• Operating efficiencies and lower cost to income ratio to aid earnings.
• Expect loan book and EPS to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 21 percent and 19 percent respectively over FY19-21.