Buzzing Stocks: ITC, Aurobindo Pharma, Vedanta, Macrotech Developers, Indiabulls Housing Finance, and others in news

Stocks to watch: Check out the companies ITC, Aurobindo Pharma, Vedanta, Macrotech Developers, Indiabulls Housing Finance, and others making headlines before the opening bell today, on March 13, 2024.

Aurobindo Pharma: Subsidiary Eugia Pharma Specialities has started the distribution of aseptic products manufactured at Unit III, which was temporarily stopped. Eugia also expects to start commercial production from the aseptic lines of the said facility in a phased manner beginning next week and to re-start all the lines by April 15, 2024.

Vedanta: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked Vedanta India, earlier known as Cairn India Ltd, to pay Cairn UK Holdings (CUHL) Rs 77.62 crore plus a simple interest rate of 18 percent per annum for delayed payment of dividends. The regulator also asked the company’s chairman and managing director (CMD) Navin Agarwal, whole-time director Tarun Jain, whole-time director and chief executive officer (CEO) Thomas Albanese, and whole-time director and chief financial officer (CFO) GR Arun Kumar to restrain from accessing the securities market for two months and non-executive director Priya Agarwal and independent directors K Venkataramanan, Lalita D Gupte, Aman Mehta, Ravi Kant, and Edward T Story from accessing the market for one month. Vedanta said the order by SEBI will have no major financial impact.

KFin Technologies: Kotak Mahindra Bank sold 34.7 lakh equity shares (equivalent to 2.03 percent of total paid-up equity) in the technology-driven financial services platform at an average price of Rs 600.28 per share. Kotak Bank held a 9.8 percent stake in KFin as of December 2023.

Lemon Tree Hotels: The hotel chain has opened its eighth hotel property, Keys Select by Lemon Tree Hotels, in Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Macrotech Developers: Promoter Sambhavnath Infrabuild and Farms sold 49,72,100 equity shares (equivalent to 0.5 percent of paid-up equity) in the real estate developer at an average price of Rs 1,180.02 per share, valued at Rs 586.72 crore.

Indiabulls Housing Finance: The housing finance company said the meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on March 15 to consider the raising of funds through the issuance of debt securities in one or more tranches.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals: Detergent soap maker Nirma has completed the acquisition of a 75 percent stake in Glenmark Life Sciences. After selling 6,73,89,944 equity shares (equivalent to 55 percent of paid-up equity share capital) of Glenmark Life Sciences to Nirma, Glenmark Pharma further transferred the remaining 2,45,05,435 equity shares (equivalent to 20 percent of paid-up equity) of Glenmark Life Sciences to Nirma, and with this, the transaction as the share purchase agreement is now complete.

JG Chemicals: The leading zinc oxide manufacturer, is set to list its equity shares on the BSE and NSE on March 13. The final issue price has been fixed at Rs. 221 per share. Trading in its equity shares will be in the normal market segment for all investors.

Indoco Remedies: The pharma company said its Committee of Executive Directors has approved the purchase of 2,860.75 square meters of land parcel at Mahal Industrial Estate, in Andheri, Mumbai Suburban, from an unrelated third-party seller, Saldanha Realty and Infrastructure LLP, for the company’s expansion plans. The said land was previously held by the company on leasehold rights.

Shalby: The healthcare services provider will acquire a 100 percent stake in Healers Hospital (HHPL) from its existing shareholders for Rs 104 crore. The said acquisition which is part of business growth expansion plans, will be completed within 30 days. Post-acquisition, HHPL will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.

Sona Machinery: The agro-processing equipment manufacturer, will make its debut on the NSE Emerge on March 13. The final issue price is Rs. 143 per share. Its equity shares will be available in the trade-for-trade surveillance segment.

Muthoot Capital Services: The EV-focused lending platform evfin, a part of NBFC Greaves Finance and energy solutions company Greaves Cotton, signed a partnership with Muthoot Capital Services to launch a co-lending arrangement to increase the availability of electric two-wheeler financing solutions across India. The collaboration entails a total deal size of up to Rs 150 crore.

Hindware Home Innovation: Salil Kapoor has resigned as the Chief Executive Officer of the company due to personal reasons, with effect from March 12.

Lumax Auto Technologies: The automotive ancillary company said Lumax Resources has been incorporated in New Delhi as a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.

SRF: The chemicals company has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary, SRF Middle East LLC, in Dubai, to undertake the activity of trading in industrial gases.

Signature Global: The company, through its subsidiary, has launched its new project, Orchard Avenue-3, under the Affordable Housing Policy 2013, in Gurugram. The project consists of a total of 235 units, with an area of 1.66 acres.

Nirlon: Alfano Pte Ltd., the promoter group, and Kunal Virenchee Sagar, the promoter, exited the company by selling their personal shareholding via open market transactions. They offloaded 2.5 percent shares at an average price of Rs 430 per share, while Nihar Nandan Nilekani, the son of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, bought 22,52,041 equity shares (2.5 percent stake) at the same price.

Onward Technologies: White Oak India Equity Fund IV sold 1,25,248 equity shares in the software company at an average price of Rs 463.81 per share.

SecureKloud Technologies: Healthcare Triangle Inc., a step-down subsidiary of the company, has appointed Anand Kumar as the interim Chief Executive Officer alongside his current role as the Chief Revenue Officer.

Indian Terrain Fashions: Venture capital firm Polaris Banyan Holding bought 3.05 lakh equity shares (equivalent to 0.7 percent of paid-up equity) in the apparel retailer at an average price of Rs 76.53 per share.

ITC: Global tobacco company British American Tobacco has launched a block deal to sell a 3.5 percent equity stake in India’s ITC to institutional investors for as much as Rs 16,775 crore. It plans to sell up to 43.69 crore ITC shares via accelerated bookbuilding at Rs 384–400.25 per share, reported CNBC Awaaz, citing sources. At the lower end of the price band, the share sale is at a 5 percent discount to Tuesday’s closing price.

Abhilash Pagaria of Nuvama Institutional Equities said the move would lead to $105 million inflows into domestic indices. He expects Expect a $65 million inflow, equal to 13 million shares, with a 0.9-day volume impact. For Sensex, as per Nuvama Alternative math, $38 million worth inflows are likely, which is 7.7 million shares, with a 0.5-day volume impact.

ITC shares fell 13.48 per cent to Rs 404.25 in 2024 so far. The stock is up 5.31 per cent in the past one year.

As global index providers (MSCI and FTSE) are already utilising 24 per cent as the float, which represents the maximum foreign ownership limit, Nuvama Alternative does not anticipate any weight increase in global passive indices.

Manish Chowdhury, Head of Research at StoxBox: “We believe that shares of ITC could be under pressure in the near term amid a large supply of shares. A near term top seems to be in place around Rs 500-odd levels which happened just before the announcement of the demerger of the hotel business into a new entity in August 2023. However, we remain constructive on the company from a medium to long term perspective owing to its strong brand recall and enormous runway for its FMCG business ahead.”

Chowdhury said with inflation expected to moderate further ahead, especially the rural side, we expect volumes in the overall business to come back as we move forward. At the current valuation, we believe that most of the negatives are already priced in and investors could start considering adding the stock to their portfolio at every dip.

The London-listed BAT had in February said it was “actively working” to reduce its roughly 29 per cent stake in the cigarette maker ITC, which has interests in segments ranging from hotels to consumer packaged goods.

The stake sale would allow the maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes to pay down its debt and move faster towards the leverage range at which it could resume share buybacks. Also recently companies such as Whirlpool and Hyundai announced monetisation of their stakes in Indian companies.

BAT had in its preliminary quarterly results for the December quarter said it continued to pursue all opportunities to enhance balance sheet flexibility and, as part of this, it regularly reviewed its stake in ITC. “We recognise that we have a significant shareholding which offers us the opportunity to release and reallocate some capital,” BAT said.

With Thanks Reference to: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/photos/business/stocks/buzzing-stocks-itc-aurobindo-pharma-vedanta-macrotech-developers-indiabulls-housing-finance-lemon-tree-hotels-kfin-technologies-and-others-in-news-12448371-21.html and https://www.businesstoday.in/markets/company-stock/story/itc-block-deal-today-bat-to-sell-rs-17k-crore-itc-shares-will-it-influence-passive-flows-421222-2024-03-13