Six Stocks In News At Noon: Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge, Muthoot Finance, Kotak Bank, SBI Cards

The NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex were trading near day's high around noon. The benchmarks have risen 0.83% and 0.78%, respectively so far on Thursday. As of 11:58 a.m., the Nifty 50 and Sensex were trading 0.76% and 0.73% higher, respectively.

Ashok Leyland Ltd., Bharat Forge Ltd., Muthoot Finance Ltd., Natco Pharma Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., and SBI Cards And Payment Services Ltd. stocks were trending around noon.

Ashok Leyland Ltd. saw its share price rise over 2% before declining on Thursday, following the announcement of strong third-quarter earnings and an optimistic outlook from brokerages.

Shares of Ashok Leyland rose as much as 2.69% to Rs 225.26 apiece.

Bharat Forge Ltd.'s share price declined to the lowest level in over one year as the company disappointed the street with weaker than expected performance during October-December. Its third-quarter consolidated net profit fell 16.14% on the year to Rs 213 crore, compared to Rs 303 crore estimated by analysts in a Bloomberg's consensus estimates.

Share price of Muthoot Finance Ltd. rose over 6% to hit a fresh life high on Thursday, after the company reported strong third-quarter earnings. In addition, the shares were also trading at a higher volume.

Muthoot Finance stock rose as much as 6.37% to Rs 2,322 apiece, the highest level since its listing in 2011.

Shares of Natco Pharma Ltd. tumbled over 18% — biggest intraday loss since March 2020 — on Thursday, as the third-quarter profit of the company slipped 37%, missing analysts' estimates.

Natco Pharma's stock fell as much as 18.6% to Rs 992.5 apiece in early trade, the biggest fall since March 23, 2020.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. shares rose, following lifting of restrictions imposed on the lender by the Reserve Bank of India.

The restrictions, imposed in April last year, had prevented the lender from onboarding new customers through online and mobile channels, as well as issuing new credit cards. Removal of these regulatory barriers has prompted a positive response from analysts.

SBI Cards And Payment Services Ltd.'s share price rose to the highest level since Aug. 11, 2023, after Macquarie upgraded the stock rating to 'outperform'. The brokerage also hiked the target price to Rs 1,000 from Rs 735 apiece, which implied 22.5% upside.

Macquarie sees falling costs, easing liquidity, income tax cuts, and the Reserve Bank of India's softer stance towards unsecured loans to catalyse SBI Cards And Payments Services' growth. Slippage in credit cards are also declining.