Stocks To Watch: Hindalco, Jet Airways, Pidilite Industries, RIL, Tata Motors  

Asian stocks began a Christmas Eve session in muted fashion on Tuesday, with trading diminishing at the end of a year that took a global benchmark to successive record highs.

After a becalmed Monday on Wall Street, Japanese and Australian equities were little changed. U.S. futures were also flat after the S&P 500 closed higher for the eighth time in nine sessions. The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, traded unchanged at 12,279 as of 6:50 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 in today’s trade.

• Reliance Industries: The Delhi High Court has sought details of Reliance Industries Ltd.’s assets after the government petitioned to stop a proposed sale of a minority stake in the company’s oil and chemical business to Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Bloomberg reported quoting people familiar with the matter. “The court has also directed Reliance’s partner, Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Indian unit—BG Exploration & Production India—to submit details of assets, the people said, asking not to be identified as the documents aren’t public. The Indian government is fighting arbitration cases over profit sharing and royalty payments with Reliance and its partners,” the report added.
• Hindalco: Muri Refinery in Jharkhand restarted production of Alumina. The company said it may not need to import Alumina. On April 10, the operations of the plant were suspended due to spillage in red mud cake storage area.
• IRCTC signed a memorandum of understanding with Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India for listing the association’s member hotels and their room rate inventory for sales on the IRCTC portal. The company has also revised tariff of standard meals on static units over Indian Railways.
• Lemon Tree Hotels: Company has signed a License Agreement for a 55 room upcoming Hotel at Hill Cart Road in Darjeeling under the Company’s brand ‘Lemon Tree Hotel’. This hotel will add to the portfolio of hotels in West Bengal, which include operating hotels in Kolkata and Siliguri. The hotel project, owned by SGB Developers Pvt. Ltd., is in the greenfield stage and is expected to open in September, 2022.
• Chalet Hotels has entered into a Franchise Agreement with Hyatt India Consultancy for Hyatt Regency Navi Mumbai. Company’s upcoming 260 key hotel will be the first Hyatt Regency branded hotel for the company. Project is expected to be completed in 2022.
• Tata Motors received National Company Law Tribunal Hyderabad’s nod for transferring of the Defense Undertaking to its arm Tata Advanced Systems.
• Corporation Bank: Crisil has revised the credit ratings for bonds worth Rs 850 crore from Negative to Rating Watch with Positive Implications.
• Pidilite Industries’ arm to invest Rs 49 crore in Homevista Décor and Furnishings.
• Great Eastern Shipping has delivered its Suezmax Crude Carrier to its buyers. The vessel was contracted for sale in Nov. 19.
• Avantel received orders worth Rs 43 crore from the Indian Space Research Organisation and Ministry of Defense.
• NCLT Mumbai approved the merger of Strides Chemical and Solara Active Pharma Sciences.
• Minda Industries: Board approved entering into Wheel Speed Sensor Business in India and South Korea by purchasing certain machinery and technical know-how from Sensata Technology Group for Rs 45.21 crore.
• NR Agarwal Industries said that it intends to take viability study to set up 500 TPD Duplex Board Unit 6 as part of the expansion plans of the company.
• ITC: John Pulinthanam has resigned from Board of Director. He represented General Insurers' (Public Sector) Association of India.
• Jet Airways to issue fresh invitation of expression of interest for the corporate debtor.
• Tourism Finance Corporation of India: Merlin Holdings increased stake from 8.08 percent to 9.94 percent.
• Jaiprakash Power Ventures allotted Rs 3,805.53 crore worth of convertible compulsory convertible preference shares to Banks and Financial Institutions.
• Sterling Tools entered into a joint venture with China’s Jiangsu Gtake Electric to design, manufacture and supply motor control units in India.
• GE T&D India will sell its undertaking at Allahabad to Shirdi Sai Electricals for Rs 25 crore. The company said this will result in optimizing the utilization level of the transformer manufacturing factories in the company and consolidation of the Company's transformer manufacturing-related operations in India.
• Vodafone Idea, Bharti Infratel: Long stop date for merger completion of Indus Towers with Bharti Infratel ends today. The merger completion is yet to be announced and is yet to receive government’s approval pertaining to FDI enhancement. The long stop date of the merger was extended by 60 days to Dec. 24 from Oct. 24
• NIIT Tech approved buyback of 19.6 lakh shares at Rs 1,725 per share aggregating to Rs 337.5 crore The company will buyback 3.1 percent of the equity using 20.23 percent of the net worth. Promoters will be participating in the buyback.

Pledge Share Details

• Asian Paints promoter Sattva Holding created pledge of 34.2 lakh shares on Dec. 17.
• Jyothy Labs promoter MP Ramachandran released pledge of 56.5 lakh shares on Dec. 20.
• Future Consumer promoter Future Capital Investment revoked pledge of 1.13 crore shares on Dec. 19.

Trading Tweaks

• Kesoram Industries ex-date for demerger.
• Arrow Textiles, Hindusthan National Glass & Industries, Max Ventures and Industries to move into short term ASM Framework.
• Reliance Home Finance, Pokarna to move out of short term ASM Framework.

Who’s Meeting Whom

• Sudarshan Chemical to meet Edelweiss Broking on Dec. 24.
• Mahindra Holidays & Resorts to meet Whitestone Financial Advisors and Old Bridge Capital from Dec. 24-31.

Insider Trading

• KRBL promoters acquired 46,000 shares on Dec. 20.
• Aarti Industries promoter Chandrakant Vallabhji Gogri sold 48,000 shares from Nov. 20- Dec. 20.

Money Market Update

• The rupee closed at 71.18/$ versus 71.12/$ on Friday.

F&O Cues

Index Futures

• Nifty December futures closed at 12,276.4, premium of 13.7 points versus 18 points.
• Nifty futures open interest across series up 1 percent, adds 1.8 lakh shares in open interest.
• Nifty Bank December futures closed at 32,329.4, discount of 10 points versus 6.5 points.
• Nifty Bank futures open interest across series up 3 percent, adds 51k shares in open interest.
• Rollovers –Nifty 33 percent, Nifty Bank 36 percent.

Options

• Nifty PCR at 1.66 versus 1.72 (across all series).

Nifty Monthly Expiry: Dec. 26

• Max open interest on call side at 12,300 (28.8 lakh shares).
• Max open interest on put side at 12,000 (35.2 lakh shares).
• Open interest addition seen at 12,300C (+4.2 lakh shares), 12,250C (+4 lakh shares), 12,250P (+3.4 lakh shares).

Brokerage Radar

Morgan Stanley on JSPL

• Maintained ‘Overweight’ with a price target of Rs 174.
• Believe any restructuring of the international debt will be positive.
• JSPL's standalone leverage was 2.9x, while consolidated stood at 4.8 times.
• Any restructuring of this debt that could improve the cash flow situation.

Kotak Securities on Vodafone Idea

• Recent tariff increases a relief but a lot more needed.
• Cash-flow situation remains stretched even with our revised higher ARPU.
• Without a soft landing on the AGR issue, Vodafone Idea would need much higher ARPU to stay competitive/relevant.
• Range of outcomes too wide to reinstate rating.

BOBCAPS on Cera Sanitaryware

• Maintained ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 3,040.
• Near-term demand outlook remains challenging.
• Demand continues to stagnate with no pickup seen over the past two months.
• Not facing cost pressures but an adverse product mix could be a drain on 2019-20 margins.
• Company does not intend to chase growth at the expense of working capital discipline.

SBICAP on India General Insurance

• Premium growth remains steady in Nov’19.
• Nov’19 GDPI growth remains steady at 16.4 percent YoY supported by Group Health and Crop segments.
• Motor OD growth fizzles out likely due to weak new auto sales and intense pricing pressure.
• Bajaj Finance and ICICI General remain arguably among the best franchises but stretched valuations leave little room for upside.

Corrects earlier version which misstated Chalet Hotels signed license agreement for a 55 room in Darjeeling and is expected to open in September 2022.