Stocks To Watch: Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, HCL Tech, Indian Oil, Strides Pharma

Stocks in Asia opened mixed and U.S. equity futures rose as markets appeared to take a breather after the recent sell-off.

Shares in South Korea edged up, while Australian and Japanese equities fell. Futures pointed to a lower start in Hong Kong. The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, rose 0.18 percent to 10,573.50 as of 7 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 Our For In Today’s Trade

• Strides Pharma Science’s board approved investment of $15 million in its bio pharma arm Stelis, The company increased its stake from 36.25 percent to 38 percent. Stelis has completed the construction of its modern state of manufacturing facility at Bengaluru. The Drug Product block of this facility is in the final stages of validation and is expected to go commercial for manufacturing and high end CDMO services in the fourth quarter of financial year 2019, as stated in the company’s press release.
• Bharti Airtel’s Netherland arm received a tender for $995 million for the Senior Notes issued due 2023. The company says that up to $505 million principal amount of notes remain outstanding. The tele-company said the purpose of tender offer was to proactively manage its capital structure, reduce gross debt and leverage by acquiring the Notes funded out of equity proceeds and provide liquidity to Noteholders at a premium to the market. The Company also stated in their press release that proceeds of equity issuance of its African arm amounting to $1.25 billion from global investors is now fully realised and available as cash.
• Indian Oil Corporation’s finance director AK Sharma said that the company hopes to meet nine million tonnes of Iran oil import target for the financial year 2019. He also added that payment for Iran oil will be rupees via the UCO Bank and the oil marketing company continues to absorb Re.1 per litre price on gasoline and diesel under pricing mechanism announced by the government. (Bloomberg News)
• Infosys’ arm announced successful completion of digital payment solutions to Cyprus based RCB Bank.
• Oriental Bank of Commerce intend to divest its stake in its Joint Venture – Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commercial Life Insurance at an appropriate time depending on the market conditions.
• BEML was awarded contract worth Rs 3015 crore for supply of 378 Metro coaches. The deliveries is scheduled to commence July 2020 until Sep 2022.
• India’s largest airline IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation will now charge for web check-in of all seats as carriers continue to look for ways to make up for higher costs.
• The S&P BSE Sensex will include HCL Technologies and Bajaj Finance from Dec. 24 in the index’s latest rejig. The two companies will replace Wipro and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, according to a notice on the BSE’s website.

Media Reports

• HDFC Ergo in talks to buy Apollo Munich for an approx. valuation of Rs 2600 crore. (Economic Times)
• Indian Government notifies quadricycyles as non transport vehicles (PIB).

Earnings To Watch

• Housing & Urban Development Corp.
• GIC Housing Finance

Bulk Deals

CIL Nova Petrochemicals

• Promoter Chiripal Manuj Ashokkumar acquired 1.5 lakh shares or 0.55 percent equity at Rs 21.8 each.
• Asia Investment Corporation Mauritius sold 1.5 lakh shares or 0.55 percent equity at Rs 21.8 each.

Talwalkers Lifestyles

• Aequitas Investment acquired 4.6 lakh shares or 1.50 percent equity at Rs 110 each.
• Aditya Birla Sun Life MF sold 4.6 lakh shares or 1.50 percent equity at Rs 110 each.

Who’s Meeting Whom

• CIPLA to meet Edelweiss Securities, Axis Capital and Other Investors from Nov. 23-30.
• Tata Chemicals to meet Fidelity Investments on Nov. 26.
• Chola Investment & Finance to meet Emkay Global Services on Nov. 27.
• Mahindra Logistics to meet East Bridge Capital on Nov. 26.

Insider Trades

• Electrosteel Castings promoter group acquired 65,200 shares on Nov. 20.
• JM Financial promoter and director Vishal Kampani acquired 50,000 shares from Nov. 19-20.

(As reported on Nov. 22)

Trading Tweaks

• Adani Gas price band revised to 10 percent.
• Forbes & Co price band revised to 5 percent.
• Satia Industries to move into ASM Framework.

Money Market Update

• The rupee closed at 70.69 against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, up 1 percent over its previous close. Money market operations were shut on Friday.

F&O Cues

• Nifty November futures closed trading at 10525, discount of 2 points.
• Nifty November OI down 2.3 percent; Nifty Bank November OI down 28.1 percent.
• Max OI for November series at 10,700 Call, OI at 38.1 lakh shares.
• Max OI for November series at 10,000 Put, OI at 38.5 lakh shares.

Stocks In F&O Ban

• Adan Enterprises
• Adani Power
• Jet Airways
• DHFL

Put-Call Ratio

• Nifty PCR at 1.46 from 1.55.
• Nifty Bank PCR at 0.94 from 1.19.

Fund Flows

Brokerage Radar

HSBC on Banks

• Axis Bank: Upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’; raised price target to Rs 730 from Rs 590
• ICICI Bank: Downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’; raised price target to Rs 390 from Rs 345
• HDFC Bank: Maintained ‘Buy’; cut price target to Rs 2,350 from Rs 2,398.
• Axis Bank’s ahead-of-the curve branch expansion to help NIM as growth picks up.
• Gap in RoE/growth outlook drives relative preference of Axis over ICICI.
• Downgraded ICICI Bank after the rally; Maintained ‘Buy’ on HDFC Bank due to underperformance.