Stocks To Watch: Biocon, Tata Steel, Orient Cement, Mahindra CIE, Sanofi India, Wipro

Asia markets are primed for a cautious open after the U.S. shares fell, weighed down by Federal Reserve meeting minutes that underscored the central bank’s hawkish outlook and prompted investors to increase forecasts for interest rate hikes.

The S&P 500 closed down 0.2% for its fourth consecutive decline while the Nasdaq 100 managed to edge into positive territory in the final minutes of Wall Street’s Wednesday session.

A rally in Treasuries moderated after the Fed minutes were released. The Fed minutes showed officials expect further interest rate increases to tame inflation.

On the other hand, as per Wednesday's MPC minutes, the members from the RBI remained committed to bringing inflation within the target, while the external member Jayanth R Varma expressed the need to exercise caution amidst headwinds to growth.

RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das said, "we must remain unwavering in our commitment to bring down inflation, while being mindful of growth."

Meanwhile, the yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced to 3.91%. Crude prices were trading around $80-mark, while Bitcoin was trading above 24,000-level.

At 5:40 a.m., the Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of India's benchmark Nifty 50, was up 0.10% at 17,574.

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty extended their decline for the fourth consecutive session as they crashed 1.5% each—the most in two weeks—tracking weakness in the global markets.

Rupee closed lower against the U.S. dollar for the second day in a row as the greenback and U.S. yields surged on hopes of more Fed hikes.

Overseas investors in Indian equities turned net sellers after a day on Wednesday. Foreign portfolio investors offloaded equities worth Rs 579.82 crore, while the domestic institutional investors turned net buyers and bought 371.56 crore worth of equities.

• Biocon: Kotak Special Situations Fund invested Rs 1,070 crore in the company, which will be utilised by the latter’s subsidiary—Biocon Biologics—to fund its acquisition of the biosimilars business of its partner Viatris.

• Tata Steel: The company acquired 4.69 crore shares of its indirect subsidiary of Neelachal Ispat Nigam at Rs 64 apiece, aggregating to Rs 300 crore in the first tranche of investment in the equity shares of the latter.

• Orient Cement: The non-binding MoU between the company and Adani Power Maharashtra for establishing a cement grinding unit at Tiroda, Maharashtra stands terminated as the latter could not obtain the required MIDC clearances for sub-leasing the land required for the facility.

• Ugro Capital: The board of the company will meet on Feb. 25 to consider and approve raising funds via issuance of non-convertible debentures and/or commercial papers on private placement basis.

• HG Infra Engineering: The company has been declared as the preferred bidder by Rail Vikas Nigam, Chandigarh for a project for construction of foundations, sub-structure and superstructure along the Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri new railway line in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh. The company had placed a bid of Rs 466.11 crore for the project.

• Gujarat Gas/Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals: The Gujarat government has state’s Chief Secretary Raj Kumar as chairman of the boards of both companies with effect from Feb. 21, 2023.

• Lemon Tree Hotels: The company signed a licence agreement for a 47-room property in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, which is expected to become operations by December 2023 and will be operated by subsidiary Carnation Hotels.

• Hero MotoCorp: The company, through its electric mobility brand Vida, initiated operations of its public charging infrastructure in Bengaluru, Delhi and Jaipur.

• Wipro: The company launched Decentralised Identity and Credential Exchange ID to make digital identification and credential verification faster, easier and more secure.

• Sarda Energy and Minerals: The South Eastern Coalfields has issued letter of acceptance to the company against its bid for re-opening, salvaging, rehabilitation, development and operation of Kalyani underground mines in Chhattisgarh on revenue sharing of 4.5%.

Mahindra CIE Automotive Q4 CY2022 (Consolidated, YoY)

• Revenue up 34.6% at Rs 2246.84 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 2,818.85 crore)

• Ebitda up 62.19% at Rs 292.40 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 357.15 crore)

• Ebitda Margin at 13.01% vs 10.8% (Bloomberg estimate: 12.7%)

• Net loss of Rs 657.81 crore vs net profit of Rs 80.23 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 196.45 crore profit)

• The company recorded a loss of Rs 923.37 crore on fair valuation of assets and liabilities of discontinued operations during the quarter under review.

Enkei Wheels (India), KSB, Sanofi India

• Mukand: Promoter group Baroda Industries bought one lakh shares between Feb. 20-21.

• Bajaj Holdings: Promoter group Bachhraj Factories bought 20,178 shares between Feb.17- 20.

• Ultramarine & Pigments: Promoter group Deepa Ajay sold 30,000 shares and Daya Sridhar sold 30,817 shares on Feb. 20.

• Arman Financial Services: Promoter Himani A Manakiwala sold 3,037 shares on Feb. 20.

• HCL Technologies: Promoter Vama Sundari Investments Delhi bought 3.10 lakh shares on Feb. 17.

• Gallantt Ispat: Promoter group Maanaav Dineshkumar Agarwal bought 23,884 shares between Nov. 28, 2022, and Feb. 20, 2023.

• Meghmani Finechem: Promoter Maulik Jayantibhai Patel bought 3,800 shares on Feb. 21.

Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals: Promoter Zuari Industries created a pledge of 3 lakh shares on Feb. 17.

• Delhivery: Internet Fund III sold 1.24 crore shares (1.7%) at Rs 335.06 apiece.

• Patel Engineering: Bank of Baroda sold 29.8 lakh shares (1.16%) at Rs 0.25 apiece.

• Ex-Date Interim Dividend: Kirloskar Oil Engines, Metropolis Healthcare, Suprajit Engineering

• Record Date Interim Dividend: Kirloskar Oil Engines, Metropolis Healthcare, Suprajit Engineering

• Move Into Of Short-Term ASM Framework: Pennar Industries

• Move Out Of Short-Term ASM Framework: Uniphos Enterprises

• Tech Mahindra: To meet investors and analysts on March 3.

• Tilaknagar Industries: To meet investors and analysts on Feb. 23.

• UltraTech Cement: To meet investors and analysts on Feb. 23.

• Aurobindo Pharma: To meet investors and analysts on Feb. 23.

• Kalyan Jewellers: To meet investors and analysts on Feb. 23.

• Nifty February futures ended at 17,566 a discount of 274.10 points.

• Nifty February futures fell 15.40% and 21,412 shares in Open Interest.

• Nifty Bank February futures ended at 40,001.90, a discount of 709.30 points.

• Nifty Bank February futures fell 32.62% and 25,006 shares in Open Interest.

• Securities added to the ban period: Vodafone Idea

• Securities removed from the ban period: Nil.

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