Stocks in focus: HCL Tech, RIL, Bharti Airtel, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Mindtree, Federal Bank, South Indian Bank

Nifty futures were trading 67 points higher at 11,762 on Singaporean Exchange, indicating a gap-up opening for BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 on Friday. In the previous session, headline indices fell over 2.5 per cent, halting the 10-day rally. While analysts see immediate support for Nifty 50 at 11600. A host of factors such as trade deficit data, corporate earnings for stock-specific action, trends in COVID-19 cases, oil and rupee movement and other global cues, will be keenly watched. “The margin of safety is low given premium prices and a slowdown in economic recovery. The trend going forward will depend on the supportive measures announced in context to stimulus and commentary of Q2 results,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Stocks in focus today:

HCL Technologies: IT giant HCL Tech is scheduled to announce its July-September quarter earnings later in the day today. So far, IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Infosys and Mindtree have reported their second-quarter numbers.

Reliance Industries: Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries received subscription amounts of Rs 6247.50 from MIC Redwood 1 RSC Limited (Mubadala) and Rs 5512.50 crore from Platinum Owl C 2018 RSC Limited (acting in its capacity as trustee of ‘Platinum Jasmine A 2018 Trust’) (ADIA).

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel announced an agreement under which Comfort Investments II will invest US$235 million in Nxtra Data Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airtel engaged in the data centre business. The post-money enterprise valuation of Nxtra is approximately US$1.2 billion and Carlyle will hold a stake of approximately 25% in the business upon completion of the transaction, with Airtel continuing to hold the remaining stake of approximately 75%.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank: The board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) on Thursday approved raising Rs 500 crore through a rights issue. The cash-starved lender has been pursuing a merger with Clix Group from whom it has received an indicative non-binding offer. In the meantime, LVB is exploring other options to raise funds.

South Indian Bank: SIB on Thursday reported a 23% year-on-year decline in its net profit for the second quarter at Rs 65.09, mainly on additional provisioning. The Kerala-based lender had reported a net profit of Rs 84.48 crore in the year-ago period.

Mindtree: IT firm Mindtree on Thursday posted a 87.9 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 253.7 crore for the September 2020 quarter, and said it was confident of continuing its growth momentum. The company also announced to roll out salary hikes with effect from January 1, 2021.

Federal Bank: A total of 25 companies including HCL Technologies, Bajaj Consumer Care, Federal Bank, Tata Communications, Tinplate Company, and Phillips Carbon Black, are slated to announce their July-September quarter earnings today.

Persistent Systems: Persistent Systems on Thursday announced the acquisition of Palo Alto-based CAPIOT Software and its subsidiaries in Australia, India and Singapore. Persistent said that the CAPIOT acquisition would strengthen its ability to provide enterprise integration strategy and advisory services.