Sensex sees modest gains amid lacklustre trade

NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE Sensex pared gains after rising over 100 points in intraday trades on Monday.

The 30-share index was trading at 29,278.22, up 46.81 points or 0.16 per cent. It touched a high of 29,362.96 and a low of 29,250.26 in trade today.

Tracking the momentum, the 50-share Nifty index was quoting 8.55 points, or 0.10 per cent, higher at 8,842.15.

Sesa Sterlite (up 1.98 per cent), L&T (up 1.77 per cent), TCS (up 1.50 per cent), Mahindra &mahindra (up 1.37 per cent) and Tata Power (up 1.05 per cent) were among the major Sensex gainers.

GAIL (down 1.08 per cent), RIL (down 0.77 per cent), Axis Bank (down 0.76 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (down 0.68 per cent) and HDFC (down 0.63 per cent) were the major index losers.
Here is a list of twelve stocks which are in focus today:

Infosys: Infosys, after signing its first big-ticket acquisition under CEO Vishal Sikka last week, is evaluating a dozen more startups - all aimed not at bulking revenues or adding clients, as Indian IT companies typically do, but at gaining cutting-edge technology such as automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

SBI: State Bank of India will decide on issue price of equity shares on preferential basis to the government for Rs 2,970 crore capital infusion on March 24.

DLF Ltd: Realty major DLF plans to divest around 50 per cent stake each in four new housing projects to private equity firms for over Rs 3,000 crore, a senior company official said.

Bharti Airtel Ltd: Telecom operators Airtel and BSNL are likely to sign a pan-India roaming pact within a month to strengthen their 2G mobile services in areas where either of them is having a weak or negligible presence.

Lanco Infratech Ltd: Cash-starved Lanco Group has approached lenders to reschedule Rs 1,000 crore debt of two of its gas-based power plants in Andhra Pradesh till January 2018.

Hathway Cable Ltd: Foreign shareholding in Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd has reached the prescribed limit and foreign investors would not be allowed to purchase further shares in the company, the RBI said. At 10:20 a.m.; the stock was trading 0.2 per cent lower at Rs 61.90.

Coal India Ltd: State-owned Coal India (CIL) said it is gearing up to invest about Rs 6,000 crore towards capital expenditure in the next fiscal and an equal amount on augmenting other infrastructure, including rail connectivity.

SpiceJet: Sources with direct knowledge indicate that Ajay Singh has struck the deal to buy Maran's 58% stake in SpiceJet at a throwaway price of around Rs 200 crores. The valuation worked out to save SpiceJet is at a price much lower than even half the market cap of SpiceJet at the time of deal announcement.

Suzlon Energy Ltd: Suzlon Energy announced that the Securities Issue Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company, at its meeting held on 20 February 2015 approves the allotment of 13,57,75,037 equity shares of Rs 2 each on conversion of 34,854 USD 546,916,000 Step-up Convertible Bonds due July 2019 worth USD 34,854,000 at a conversion price of Rs 15.46 per equity share.

Tech Mahindra Ltd: Tech Mahindra plans to invest $150 million (Rs 933 crore) over the next three to four years in creating innovative solutions, both in-house and with other partners, as well as to fund acquisitions, as the company focuses on developing next-generation technologies.

Monnet Ispat & Energy: The company bagged one coal block in Chhattisgarh on the last day of the auction, bringing down the curtains on the first phase of coal auctions that will fetch the states over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Kesoram Industries Ltd: The flagship company of the BK Birla group, has sought shareholders' approval to hive off its tyre manufacturing facility at Laskar in Haridwar to a subssidiary of the company, said media reports.