Stocks in focus: RIL, SBI Cards, Asian Paints, BPCL, Kirloskar Industries, UltraTech Cement, Coal India

Nifty futures were trading 29 points down at 11,888 on Singaporean Exchange, suggesting a gap-down opening for BSE Sensex and Nifty on Thursday. Market participants will keenly watch the second and final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Besides, IMF has slashed economic growth forecast for Asia, which sent Asian stock markets in red today. Besides, corporate earnings and other developments will induce stock-specific action today. “The technical setup suggests Nifty range of 11750-12100 in the near term. We expect more stock-specific action as the earnings season progress,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Stocks in focus today:

Reliance Industries: RIL’s digital arm Reliance Jio has launched new, revamped ‘JioPages’, its Made-in-India mobile browser that is available in eight Indian languages and promises enhanced browsing experience while focusing on data privacy. The new version of the browser made its debut on Google Playstore on Tuesday.

Asian Paints, SBI Cards: A total of 48 companies including Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Infratel, HDFC Asset Management Company, SBI Cards and Payment Services, Hexaware Technologies, Indian Bank, Biocon, Coforge, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, L&T Finance Holdings, Mphasis, Reliance Power, Sterlite Technologies, and UCO Bank are scheduled to announce their July-September quarter earnings today.

Kirloskar Industries: Sebi has slapped a penalty of Rs 31 crore on Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL) promoters and others for indulging in insider trading and committing fraud on public shareholders of Kirloskar Industries Ltd.

BPCL: BPCL ESPS Trust bought 4.3 crore shares of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd from BPCL Trust for Investment in Shares at Rs 343.35 per share on Wednesday through a bulk deal.

UltraTech Cement: UltraTech Cement’s consolidated net profit more than doubled to Rs 1,234 crore on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis for the quarter ended September 30, on the back of operational efficiencies and lower finance cost.

Coal India: Coal India (CIL), which has been clocking negative growth in production during this fiscal, has been able to neutralise it for the first time. The production of 265.69 million tonne (mt) recorded on October 20 has come at level with last year’s output on the same date.

Bajaj Finance: Bajaj Finance, a non-banking finance company, on Wednesday reported a steep 36% year-on-year fall in net profit to Rs 965 crore for the quarter ended September on higher loan losses, provisioning and a drop in new loans booked. Loan losses and provisions nearly tripled to Rs 1,700 crore during the quarter.