Stocks To Watch: Axis Bank, Bharti Infratel, Maruti, Tata Steel 

Asian shares traded mixed Thursday after U.S. equities retreated from a record high as investors assessed corporate earnings and economic data.

Stocks saw modest gains in Japan and slipped in Korea. Australian markets were closed for a holiday. The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index's performance in India, traded 0.17 percent lower at 11,716.50 as of 7:20 a.m.

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Here are the stocks to watch in trade today:

• Indiabulls Real Estate clarified on the news of stake sale stating that company has engaged in its business reorganisation exercise for quite some time in the past. In respect of such reorganisation of the company's businesses many informal discussions are taking place and the company will not comment on speculations.
• RBI asks banks to disclose exposure to IL&FS accounts separately. Banks have been asked disclose quantum of loans to IL&FS classified as NPA under income recognition rules and provisions made against these accounts. This disclosure will be made separately in notes to accounts.
• Oil India: Board approved proposal for giving its employees an opportunity to exercise the option to contribute towards the Employee Pension Scheme on the basis of actual salary, having a financial impact of approximately Rs 1,788 crore to the company.
• FDC said its non-sterile manufacturing facility in Maharashtra has undergone an inspection by PIC/S Malaysia and it continues to be approved. The company says it will continue to export oral liquid, oral powder and external powder products in its press release.
• IPCA Lab to acquire Ramdev Chemical for Rs 108.5 crore. The target company is engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing of advanced drug intermediates, fine chemicals, custom synthesis molecules and APIs.
• Jet Airways clarified on the news of a British entrepreneur's offer to take control in the aviation company stating that an unsolicited email was received. The company says that the sender has been advised to formally engage with SBI Caps, who are leading the biding process under the resolution plan initiated by consortium of domestic lenders led by State Bank of India.
• Oriental Hotels to consider raising funds via debt securities on April 25
• Bank of Maharashtra to consider raising capital via various sources on April 29
• Tata Elxsi appointed Manoj Raghvan as CEO and MD of the company with effect from October 2.
• L&T issues NCDs aggregating to Rs 1,500 crore on April 18.
• Allahabad Bank allots 162.5 crore shares worth Rs 6,900 crore to Government of India in a preferential basis.
• SBI: Board approves raising $2.5 billion via different routes for financial year 2020

Pledged Share Details

• Emami promoter groups invoked pledge of 3 lakh shares on April 20
• Mercator promoter Harish Kumar Mittal revoked pledge of 10 lakh shares on October 27,2018 and invoked pledge 21.5 lakh shares from April 5-10

Vodafone-Idea rights issue over-subscribed.

Read: https://t.co/p9Z1DLTeVm pic.twitter.com/oQ4ERNF15E

Corporate Actions

• Quick Heal Technologies ex-date for share buyback
• HT Media price band revised to 20 percent
• Bharat Road Network price band revised to 5 percent

Who's Meeting Whom

• Excel Cropcare to meet ICICI Pru MF, SBI MF and IndiaNivesh Investment Managers on April 26

Insider Trading

Crest Ventures promoter Fine Estates acquired 30,700 shares on April 22

Active Stock Futures

All Series

• Nifty open interest up 12 percent, adds 23 lakh shares in open interest
• Bank Nifty open interest up 13 percent, adds 2.8 lakh shares in open interest
• Nifty Rollover 58 percent, Bank Nifty Rollover 56 percent

Options

• Nifty PCR at 1.65 versus 1.30 (across all series)

Nifty Options Expiry April 25

• Max open interest at 11,500P (27.4 lakh shares), 11,600P (27.2 lakh shares) and 11,800C (27.1 lakh shares)
• Open interest addition seen for Put strikes 11,700 (+11.6 lakh shares), 11,650 (+8.3 lakh shares)
• Open interest shedding seen for call strikes 11,700 (-35.7 lakh shares), 11,600 (-14.5 lakh shares)

Stocks In Ban

• In ban: Adani Power, DLF, IDBI, Idea, Jet Airways, Reliance Power
• Out of ban: PC Jewellers

IPO Watch

• Neogen Chemicals IPO gets 27 percent demand for shares offered on first day sale, offer close on April 24.

Earnings Reaction To Watch

Bharti Infratel (Q4 Consolidated QoQ)

• Revenue down 1.1 percent at Rs 3,600 crore
• Net profit down 6.3 percent at Rs 608 crore
• Ebitda up 1.4 percent at Rs 1,534 crore
• Margin at 42.6 percent versus 41.6 percent
• Declared dividend of Rs 7.5 per share

Indiabulls Housing Finance (Q4 Consolidated YoY)

• Net interest income down 1.1 percent at Rs 1,835.1 crore
• Net profit down 6.9 percent at Rs 1,001.4 crore
• Gross NPAs at 0.88 percent versus 0.79 percent (QoQ)
• Net NPAs at 0.69 percent versus 0.59 percent (QoQ)

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (Q4 Standalone YoY)

• Net Interest Income up 26.7 percent at Rs 1,267 crore
• Net profit up 87 percent at Rs 588 crore
• Impairment gain of Rs 114.5 crore

Agro Tech Foods (Q4 Standalone YoY)

• Revenue down 6.6 percent at Rs 200.2 crore
• Net profit up 10.7 percent at Rs 8.3 crore
• Ebitda down 6.4 percent at Rs 14.7 crore
• Margin flat at 7.3 percent

Shriram City Union Finance (Q4 Standalone YoY)

• Net Interest Income up 9.2 percent at Rs 937.9 crore
• Net profit up 11.4x times at Rs 251.3 crore
• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (Q4 Consolidated YoY)
• Net premium income up 16.2 percent at Rs 10,056.3 crore
• Net profit down 23.3 percent at Rs 261 crore

Syngene International (Q4 Consolidated YoY)

• Revenue up 30.5 percent at Rs 533.9 crore
• Net profit up 18.5 percent at Rs 100.1 crore
• Ebitda up 71 percent at Rs 167.9 crore
• Margin at 31.4 percent versus 24 percent
• Forex gain of Rs 30.9 crore

Earnings Today

• Axis Bank
• Maruti Suzuki India
• Tata Steel
• Aditya Birla Money
• Biocon
• Cyient
• GHCL
• Multi Commodity Exchange of India
• Oriental Hotels
• Rallis India
• SBI Life Insurance
• Wendt
• Vesuvius
• Indiabulls Venture
• Apcotex Industries

Brokerage Radar

CLSA on Bharti Infratel

• Downgraded to ‘Sell' from ‘Outperform'; cut target price to Rs 285 from Rs 300.
• Q4 below estimates; tenancy outlook remains muted.
• Network optimisation by Vodafone Idea and slowdown in new tenancies by Jio slowed tenancy adds.
• Cut EPS estimates for FY20-21 by 2-4 percent.

Macquarie on Hexaware

• Maintained ‘Outperform'; hiked target price to Rs 460 from Rs 440.
• Decent start to CY19 despite seasonal factors.
• Margin levers to be gradual in CY19.
• M&A to be focused on existing strategy.

CLSA on ICICI Prudential Life

• Maintained ‘Buy'; hiked target price to Rs 475 from Rs 450.
• Uptick in premium growth and rebound in persistency were encouraging.
• Protection business scale up to improve profitability and reduce volatility.
• With valuations at a discount to HDFC Life, see scope for re-rating.

Morgan Stanley on Indiabulls Housing

• Maintained ‘Underweight' with target price of Rs 600.
• Q4 in-line; liability growth remains a challenge.
• Focus on liquidity and ALM continues.
• Ability to expand will be key for growth.
• Loan sell downs cannot drive sustainable earnings growth.

Macquarie on Indiabulls Housing

• Maintained ‘Outperform' with target price of Rs 836.
• Q4 numbers optically bad; Company slammed the breaks hard to conserve cash.
• Given India's liquidity scenario, growth and profitability metrics should be ignored for few quarters.
• Q4 results don't matter; RBI approval single most important variable.

Morgan Stanley on M&M Finance

• Maintained ‘Overweight' with target price of Rs 545.
• Q4: strong showing in tough environment.
• Collections were strong which is key; Disbursements ex-SME was healthy.
• Among the best positioned NBFCs with parentage and vintage.

JPMorgan on M&M Finance

• Maintained ‘Underweight' with target price of Rs 390.
• Q4: NPL and coverage reduction aids earnings.
• Quality of beat is low; NIMs largely flat despite higher funding cost.
• Trades at a mark premium to peer group.

HSBC on UltraTech Cement

• Maintained ‘Reduce'; hiked target price to Rs 3,200 from Rs 3,140.
• Volumes in-line, better-than-expected cost efficiencies resulted in meaningful beat.
• Ramp up of UNCL assets has been progressing well; EBTIDA/tonne breached Rs 1,000/t mark after 6 quarters.
• Low return ratios and stretched valuations are not comforting.

CLSA on UltraTech Cement

• Maintained ‘Buy'; hiked target to Rs 5,270 from Rs 5,025.
• Strong Q4 results; focus now on reducing debt.
• Optimistic outlook; Higher prices improves near-term outlook.

UBS on Havells India

• Maintained ‘Sell'; hiked target price to Rs 685 from Rs 540.
• Llyod ramp-up into a mass premium brand may take a while.
• Higher valuations led to hike in target price.
• Maintain Sell has stock is pricing in high level of optimism.

HSBC on ICICI Lombard

• Maintained ‘Reduce'; cut target price to Rs 810 from Rs 830.
• Q4 results were weak and offer several medium-term directional insights.
• Company focusing on motor insurance.
• Third-party motor insurance to drive investment float.

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