Stocks in the news: HDFC Bank, Infosys, Asian paints

Domestic equity market looked poised for a lacklustre start to the new week as geopolitical worries kept centrestage and dragged share markets globally this morning. Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded flat at 10,317 at 7.30 hours this morning, indicating directionless trade for the Nifty50.

Here is a look at the key stocks trending in news this morning.

HDFC Bank: Private lender HDFC Bank on Saturday announced a 20.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in September quarter net profit at Rs 5,005.70 crore. The numbers came largely in line with analyst projections.


Infosys: Top-level exits continue at Infosys, the country’s second largest company in IT services. Ken Toombs, global head of consulting at the Bengaluru-based entity, has become the fifth high exits since Salil Parekh took charge as chief executive officer in January.

Tata Motors: Tata Sons increased its stake in Tata Motors from 33.3 per cent to 34.2 per cent in September quarter at a time when its market capitalisation is eroding and valuations dipping amid uncertainties facing its UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover.

Jet Airways: The private airline is pruning its workforce and operations further as India’s second-biggest airline battles its worst financial crisis. At least 15 people at manager or general manager level in departments such as engineering, security and sales have been asked to leave in October.

TCS: The domestic IT major has restructured its industry service units, giving almost 200 employees control of them and quarterly target goals as it looks to free up senior executives to focus on long-term strategy.

Bharti Airtel: Brokerages say RIL’s buyout of DEN Networks and Hathway Cables will give Reliance Jio Infocomm a headstart in the ultra-fast fibre-to-home service turf, posing a real threat to Bharti’s home broadband and digital TV businesses, which bring in as much as 12 per cent of Bharti’s India revenues.

Indiabulls Housing Finance: The NBFC firm plans to sell all or part of its 18.7% stake in UK-based OakNorth Holdings within a month to a private equity fund. The deal, if it goes through, will help the company rake in over six times gain on investment in less than three years. OakNorth Holdings has investors including Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation and Clermont Group. The current valuation of Indiabulls’ stake is up to ?4,500 crore

Piramal Enterprises: The company on Sunday said it “strongly refutes baseless rumours” regarding loan defaults by realty developers to its lending arms Piramal Capital & Housing Finance. The company said it “would categorically like to state that we have an extremely robust loan processing and recovery process including risk management, asset monitoring system.

DHFL: Dewan Housing Finance arm Aadhar Housing Financeis seeking to sell the majority of its saleable loan portfolio to banks to tide over the liquidity crunch. It is in talks with six banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda and ICICI Bank, to sell loans worth Rs 1,200 crore.

InterGlobe Aviation: Credit-rating agency ICRA downgraded the long-term rating of InterGlobe Aviation’s Rs 8,000-crore bank facilities citing difficult macro-economic conditions facing India’s airline industry. InterGlobe Aviation operates India’s biggest airline, IndiGo. ICRA downgraded the long-term rating to A+ from AA and reaffirmed the short-term rating of A1 on the loan facilities.

Essar Steel: The world’s largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal has been declared the preferred bidder by lenders of debt-laden Essar Steel ahead of metals player Vedanta Group, bankers said, as the 14-month battle for ownership of the prized asset draws to a close.

Asian Paints, Hind Zinc: And in September quarter earnings, Asian Paints, Hindustan Zinc, Kansai Nerolac, GSK Pharma, Inox Leisure, Jubilant Life Sciences and Oberoi Realty are among a handful companies that will announce their quarterly results during the day.