Sensex, Nifty Decline For Third Session Dragged By ITC, Bajaj Twins, Reliance

India's stock benchmarks logged losses for the third consecutive session, dragged by auto, telecom and select banking stocks. Focus shifts to the Fed policy decision due Wednesday that could induce volatility, amid rising concerns over elevated inflation and risks to economic recovery due to omicron strain.

The S&P BSE Sensex shed 0.29% to 58,117.09. The NSE Nifty 50 index also declined by similar magnitude to 17,324.90. Both the indices fell as much as 0.8% in intraday trade before paring some of the losses. ITC Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 2.6%. Today, 24 of 50 shares fell, while 26 rose.

The S&P BSE MidCap almost mirrored its larger peers shedding 0.37% while the S&P BSE SmallCap closed little changed. Ten of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced with S&P BSE Power adding 1.39%. On the flipside, S&P BSE Telecom fell nearly 1.4%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 1,806 stocks advanced, 1,503 declined and 116 remained unchanged.

"Markets consolidated in a range and ended marginally lower, in continuation to the previous session’s fall. Weak global cues triggered a gap down start however mixed trends across the sectors capped the movement thereafter", Ajit Mishra, VP - Research at Religare Broking Ltd. wrote in a note. He added, "participants are maintaining a cautious stance ahead of the US Fed meeting outcome, which is scheduled on December 15 and we may see a similar trend on Wednesday as well. On the benchmark front, a decisive fall below 17,150 in Nifty would further fuel the negative bias. We reiterate our view to limit leveraged positions and maintain positions on both sides".

PCA framework applies to

• All Deposit Taking NBFCs (Excluding Government Companies)

• All Non-Deposit Taking NBFCs in Middle, Upper and Top Layers

• Excludes NBFCs not accepting/not intending to accept public funds; Government Companies, Primary Dealers and Housing Finance Companies.

Source: RBI Release

Shares of Natco Pharma rose over 3% to Rs 912.05 apiece after the company approved the acquisition of Dash Pharmaceuticals LLC, U.S., through its subsidiary company.

• Cash consideration for the acquisition $18 million.

• Dash Pharma expected to have net sales of $15 million for the year ending December 2021.

Source: Exchange Filing

Shares of Oil India Ltd. declined for the eighth straight day, on track for the longest losing streak since the period ended July 19, 2019.

Oil India has lost a total of 8% during the streak while the NSE Nifty 50 Index fell 0.63%.

Shares of Raymond Ltd. rose as much as 7.64% to Rs 708.4 apiece after the company said it will consider and approve the issuance of non-convertible debentures aggregating to Rs 100 crore on a private placement basis, on December 17.

Relative strength on the stock is 74, suggesting it may be overbought. Trading volume on the stock was 1.9 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

Shares of cooking appliances maker Stove Kraft Ltd. rose as much as 2.68%, the biggest intraday gain in four sessions, to Rs 980 apiece after rating agency ICRA Ltd. reaffirmed the long-term and short-term credit rating of the company. ICRA has revised the outlook from 'stable' to 'positive' as well.

All five analysts tracking the company maintained 'buy' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 28.5%.

Shares of IRCON International Ltd. rose over 2% in intraday trade to Rs 47.6 apiece after the company emerged as the lowest bidder for highway construction project in Punjab for Rs 1,107 crore. The completion period of the project is two years. The work will be executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle, which shall be incorporated by IRCON as its wholly-owned subsidiary.

Trading volume on the stock was 2.5 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day. Shares of IRCON International rose above the 50-day simple moving average in today's session, indicating potential upward price momentum.

Shares of Greenlam Industries Ltd. rose 18.21%, the biggest intraday gain in four sessions, to a record Rs 1,997.4 apiece, after the company's board approved the sub-division of equity shares of the company having face value of Rs 5 each to five equity shares of Rs 1 each, on Monday. In an exchange filing, the company said that the share split was done with the intention of encouraging wider participation of retail investors by making the shares more affordable and enhancing liquidity of the company's shares.

In a separate exchange filing on Monday, Greenlam Industries announced entry into plywood and particle board business. The company intends to invest Rs 950 crore over 2-3 years to set up third laminate plant. Greenlam Industries' said that the venture into plywood and particle board segment is to utilise the rising demand in wood panel segment. The investments in laminate plant will be done under Greenlam South Ltd, a 100% subsidiary based in Andhra Pradesh. Greenlam expects to commence the commercial production of plywood and laminate by Q4FY23 and particle board by Q4FY24.

Of the eight analysts tracking the company, six maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied a downside of 19.2%.

• Infosys Ltd. has been selected by Finland-based Orion Corporation to transform its ERP and planning platforms, enhance employee experience and drive business value realisation, the company said in an exchange filing.

• Infosys will adopt best SAP practices to enable end-to-end visibility across Orion's operations, reduce business operations cost through AI, ML and robotic process automation (RPA).

Source: Exchange Filing

Bank focussing on fully-digitised on-boarding of corporate customers

• Also pushing mobile-first proposition for SMEs

• Talking to corporate clients about capital expenditure, which will pan out over 9-12 months

• Adopting an ecosystem approach to drive business to customers associated with the corporate clients

Axis Bank seeing large capex demand from renewables sector, says Rajiv Anand, deputy managing director, Axis Bank

• Also seeing demand from roads, ports, speciality chemicals

• Customers have also been able to deploy capex through internal accruals as they have been deleveraging their balance sheets

• Private capex demand in FY22-23 will be larger than what we saw in the last 3-5 years

Banks talking to RBI for extension on moratorium for corporate loans restructured under first Covid restructuring scheme, says Rajiv Anand, DMD, Axis Bank

• Banks are currently discussing the proposition with RBI

• Axis Bank not seeing the need for such an extension for its own restructured loans

Source: Axis Bank press briefing

BLOOMBERG EXCLUSIVE

• Gautam Adani's realty unit Adani Realty is in advanced talks to take over Ozone group, at an enterprise value of $1 billion.

• Adani Realty seeks to take over Bengaluru-based Ozone, which has an outstanding debt of Rs 6,000 crore.

Source: People familiar with the matter

A spokesman of Adani Group declined to comment.

India's stock benchmarks came off morning lows, but still traded lower, dragged by auto, banking, consumer durables and realty stocks. Focus shifts to Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow, in which the U.S. central bank is expected to accelerate the plans to taper monetary stimulus, an event that could trigger volatility in markets.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.3% to 58,091.93. The 30-stock gauge shed over 0.8% to 57,803.87 in intraday trade. The NSE Nifty also declined by similar magnitude to 17,319.70. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 2.3%. In midday trading, 30 of 50 shares fell, while 20 rose

The S&P BSE MidCap underperformed its larger peers shedding 0.71% while the S&P BSE SmallCap remained little changed.Eleven of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. declined with S&P BSE Realty index falling over 1%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 1,685 advanced, 1,513 declined and 134 remained unchanged.

• Can Fin Homes Ltd. declared an 'interim dividend' of Rs 1.5 per equity face of face value Rs 2 each for the financial year 2021-22.

• The company has declared December 24 as the record date to determine the list of eligible members for the payment of interim dividend.

• The interim dividend shall be credited before December 31.

Source: Exchange Filing

Shares of TTK Prestige rose 7.85% in intraday tradeto hit a record Rs 1,264.65 before erasing the gains.

• Trading volume was 73.5 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

• The company approved sub-division of equity shares of the company from face value of Rs 10 each into Rs 1 each. The stock split goes effective from today.

• Of the 11 analysts tracking the company, seven maintained 'buy', two maintained 'hold' and two maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 1.3%.

• Nitin Savara has been appointed as deputy Chief Financial Officer of the company

• Anjalli Ravi Kumar appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer.

• Neither of them designated as a key managerial personnel.

Source: Exchange Filing

Most yields along the India sovereign yield curve fell, with 3-year bonds moving the most in Tuesday morning trading.

• The 1-year yield rose 0.8bps to 4.286%

• The 10-year yield fell 0.6bps to 6.365%

• The 30-year yield was little changed at 6.962%

• The 1-year-10-year yield spread was 207.9bps, vs previous close 209.3bps

Source: Bloomberg

Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail shares jump after company approves the acquisition of exclusive online and offline rights of 'Reebok' for Indian market.

• Approval also given to purchase certain assets of Reebok India Company.

• The cost of acquisition is estimated to be between Rs 75 crore and Rs 100 crore.

Source: Exchange Filing

• Minda Industries raised to 'buy' from 'hold' at Systematix Shares & Stocks; price target at Rs 1,220.

Source: Bloomberg

The construction arm of Larsen & Toubro secured a large order for its buildings and factories business from the Government of Odisha.

• The order pertains to the construction of clinical blocks & allied infrastructure for a state-of-the-art hospital in Cuttack.

• The duration of this project is 30 months.

• L&T classifies large order to be in the range of Rs 2,500 crore-Rs 5,000 crore.

Of the 42 analysts tracked by the company, 40 maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendation. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 17.9%

Anand Rathi Wealth pre-market discovery price at Rs 602.05 apiece.

Source: Bloomberg

Shares of Adani Green Energy Ltd. rose 5% to Rs 1,454.85 apiecce after the company signed an agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India to supply 4,667 Mega Watt of green power. This is the world's largest ever green power purchase agreement, the company said in an exchange filing.

• The agreement to supply 4,667 MW is part of the manufacturing-link solar tender of 8,000 MW awarded to Adani Green, in June 2020.

• Adani Green has already signed PPAs with Solar Energy Corporation for total generation capacity of close to 6,000 MW of the 8,000 MW. The company expects to close the balance 2,000 MW PPA in the next two-three months.

• Trading volume on the stock was 4.5 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

India's stock benchmarks opened lower, dragged by losses in information technology, metal, consumer durables and banking stocks. Focus shifts to the U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision due tomorrow as well as a host of central bank meetings, as elevated inflation and omicron variant threaten the pace of economic recovery.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.62% to 57,921.36. The NSE Nifty 50 declined by similar magnitude to 17,267.80.

The S&P BSE MidCap almost mirrored its larger peers shedding 0.5% while the S&P BSE SmallCap ourperformed, with 0.2% fall. Thirteen of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE Ltd. declined with S&P BSE Finance shedding nearly 1%.

The market breadth was skewed neither in the favour of bulls nor bears. About 1,177 stocks advanced, 1,195 declined and 106 remained unchanged.

• This is the world's largest ever green power purchase agreement

• Agreement is part of a manufacturing-linked solar tender of 8,000 MW awarded to Adani Green in June 2020.

Source: Exchange Filing

• Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has been accused in a lawuit by WG Critical Care and ACB Dobfar's InfoRLife in the U.S. District Court for Delaware, of patent infringement. The case relates to a generic version of a sedative used during treatment in critical care setting.

• The two companies have seeking a court order to block the copies of its product while case proceeds and until patent has expired, as per the complaint. The patent expires in June 2038.

Source: Bloomberg, Court Filings

• Axis Capital Ltd. initiates coverage of Max Healthcare Institute Ltd. with a 'buy' recommendation; price target at Rs 465.

Source: Bloomberg

• Company approved the issue and allotment of 8.72 crore shares to 21 qualified institutional buyers at the issue price on Rs 68.75 per share, on December 10.

• Trading of the newly allotted equity shares commences from today.

Source: Exchange Filing