The market is expected to be under pressure due to volatility in the F&O expiry week, experts say
The BSE Sensex ended the week down 1,050.68 points, or 1.73 percent, at 59,636.01, while the Nifty50 fell 337.95 points, or 1.87 percent, to 17,764.80. Broader markets, too, were under pressure, with the BSE midcap and smallcap indices falling 1.71 percent and 1.5 percent. All the major sectors, barring auto, closed in the red.
Apollo Hospital | The stock jumped over 22 percent in the week gone by. Strong revenue growth and margin expansion helped the company beat Street estimates in the second quarter. Occupancies were strong for the company’s older hospitals at 3,518 beds (65 percent). New hospital occupancy stood at 1,466 beds. Nomura’s analysts said it is appropriate to value Apollo Hospitals on an SOTP basis, given the likely value unlocking in Apollo HealthCo, a subsidiary that houses its online and offline pharmacies and telemedicine businesses, in the near term through investment by strategic or financial partners.
Escorts | The share price added 18 percent in the week gone by after Japan’s Kubota Corporation ‘s decision to raise its stake in tractor maker to 14.99 percent through a preferential issue aggregating to Rs 1,872 crore, further cementing its place in India, which is the world’s largest tractor market. The joint entity intends to attain global leadership in the farm equipment sector. The name of the company shall be changed to ‘Escorts Kubota Limited’. Kubota, which has interests in tractors, earth-movers and engines, will also make an open offer to the shareholders of Escorts to acquire up to 26 percent of the company’s share capital.
Maruti Suzuki | The scrip gained over 8 percent last week. The Haryana government said a clearance has been given to auto major Maruti Suzuki for setting up a new plant over 900 acres of land at Kharkhoda in the Sonepat district of the state. Vikas Jain of Reliance Securities said any decline or retracement with the broader market correction would be a good opportunity to enter the stock near Rs 7,600. He advised holding the stock with a target of Rs 8,800.
L&T Technology Services | The stock price was up over 8 percent. The company has been chosen by NVIDIA and Mavenir as its engineering partner. “L&T Technology Services has been selected as an engineering partner by Mavenir and NVIDIA, to accelerate the adoption of the industry’s first converged AI-on-5G,” the company said in a release. It will support Mavenir with customisation, integration and deployment of AI applications for deployment on NVIDIA’s AI-on-5G Platform.
Coal India | The share price shed over 8 percent last week. The state-owned firm reported an almost flat consolidated net profit of Rs 2,936.91 for the quarter ended September 30. Q2 sales increased 9 percent year-on-year to Rs 21,292 crore, the state-owned company said. Average realisations stood at Rs 1,448 a tonne, short of expectations. Price realisations of coal sold through e-auctions increased by only 1.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 1,593 per tonne. In general, analysts had expected relatively stronger e-auction realisations as international coal prices had increased at a faster pace during the September quarter.
Manappuram Finance | The stock shed 15 percent as the firm reported an 8.8 percent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 370 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2021 due to lower income. Income from operations was down by 2 percent to Rs 1,532 crore in Q2FY22, as against Rs 1,565 crore in Q2FY21.
Indiabulls Housing Finance | The scrip was down over 8 percent in the week gone by. The company reported an 11 percent dip in its net profit at Rs 286 crore in the quarter ended September due to a decline in its loan book. The lender’s profit after tax stood at Rs 323 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Total loans disbursed as of September 30, 2021, under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) stood at Rs 176 crore, amounting to only 0.27 percent of the loan book. However, Brickwork Ratings India has revised rating outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’. In a regulatory filing on November 18, Indiabulls Housing Finance announced that Brickwork Ratings has reaffirmed its long-term credit rating at ‘BWR AA+’. The housing finance company’s perpetual debt rating has also been reaffirmed at ‘BWR AA’.
Endurance Technologies | The stock price fell 8 percent after net profit declined 20 percent to Rs 133.33 crore in the quarter ended September 2021 as against Rs 167.16 crore during the year-ago period. However, sales rose 6.63 percent to Rs 1887.55 crore in the quarter ended September 2021 as against Rs 1770.15 crore during the same quarter of the previous year. Domestic brokerage firm Motilal Oswal has a ‘buy’ rating on the stock with the target price of Rs 2,100.
KRBL | The share slipped over 7 percent after the firm reported a 9 percent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 136.22 crore for the quarter ended September. Its net profit stood at Rs 149.81 crore in the year-ago period. Total income also fell to Rs 1,059.22 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal year from Rs 1135.94 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Earlier, KRBL Ltd informed that ICRA Limited revised the rating for the banking facilities of the company. ICRA reaffirmed the long-term rating at [ICRA]AA- (pronounced ICRA double A minus) and short-term rating at [ICRA]A1+ (pronounced ICRA A one plus) for the captioned Line of Credit.
Just Dial | The share price shed over 6 percent in the week gone by. The firm reported a 30 percent drop in its September quarter profit. Net sales declined 6.87 percent to Rs 156 crore from Rs 167.50 crore YoY. “JDMart engagement is underwhelming, which underscores the hypothesis that displacing the leader in a network effect-led business is tough despite its marketing campaign,” said Edelweiss Securities in its report. Yes Securities, in a report, said that Just Dial’s performance was below expectation, both in terms of financial and operating metrics, suggesting the company continues to face high competition from Google, Facebook and other vertical and horizontal players. It has a ‘reduce’ rating on the stock.
Sandip Das
