Stocks in focus: TCS, Tata Steel, Sobha, Cipla, among others to remain in news today

Nifty futures were trading 19.50 points or 0.13 per cent down at 14,427.20 on Singaporean Exchange in early trade on Monday. In the week gone by, BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 continued their record-setting run and marked their new peaks almost every other day. Amid hopes of strong third-quarter earnings, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pumped in Rs 5,156 crore into Indian capital markets, so far in January. Market participants will keep tabs on corporate earnings, COVID-19 vaccine rollout, foreign fund inflow, macroeconomic data and other global cues. “We expect Nifty50 to report 19% earnings growth in Q3FY21 with likely upgrades coming in sectors like, automobiles, auto-ancillaries, metals & mining, cement, select banks and pharmaceuticals. Expect Nifty to go anywhere between 14,500 and 15,000 before the budget,” said Rusmik Oza, Executive Vice President, Head of Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities.

Stocks in focus today:

TCS: Tata Consultancy Services posted better than expected financial results for fiscal in the third quarter. IT major announced an interim dividend of Rs 6 per equity. TCS reported 7.17 per cent on-year rise in the consolidated net profit to Rs 8,727 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2020. It had posted a net profit of Rs 7,504 crore in the second quarter.

Tata Steel: Tata Steel India reported a 3% year-on-year growth in its crude steel production at 4.60 million tonne for the third quarter of the current fiscal with momentum continuing in sales, though constrained by lower opening inventory post a stronger sales during the second quarter of the fiscal.

Corporate earnings: A total of eight companies are set to announce their October-December quarter earnings later in the day today. These include Dolat Investments, GNA Axles Ltd, Zicom Electronic Security Systems, among others.

Sobha: Realty firm Sobha Ltd’s sales bookings rose 29 per cent on-year to Rs 887.6 crore in the third quarter this fiscal on better housing demand during the festive season. The company’s sales booking increased on account of rise in volume as well as price realisation. During 2019-20, Sobha had achieved sales bookings of Rs 2,880.6 crore.

Cipla: Cipla is recalling over 5.8 lakh packets of a drug for the reduction in the occurrence of gastric ulcers from the US market, PTI cited a report by the US Food and Drug Administration. The drug major is recalling esomeprazole magnesium for delayed-release oral suspension in unit dose packets in strengths 10 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg in the US market, the latest Enforcement Report by the USFDA said.