Back Stocks to Watch: Adani Group, Tata Consumer, LIC, MOIL, RailTel

Here are the top 10 stocks that could be in focus in today's trade:

Adani Enterprises/Adani Ports/Ambuja Cement: The NSE on Thursday placed three Adani group firms under the short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM) framework, effective Friday. This means that these stocks will be subjected to more stringent rules. Also, intraday trading will require a 100% upfront margin and is likely to curb a lot of speculation and short selling. The move by the stock exchange comes after a rout in the shares of the billionaire Gautam Adani's group companies in the aftermath of a scathing report by a US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.

Life Insurance Corporation: The government does not plan to trade additional shares of state-run Life Insurance Corp. of India to the public in FY24 because of  unfavourable market conditions and weak retail demand, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary of the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam), said in an interview. Events that adversely affect the markets have repercussions on disinvestment deals as well, Pandey said, alluding to the sell-off in the Adani group stocks and its effect on the wider market.

Tata Consumer Products: Tata Consumer Products on Thursday reported a 25.6% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 364.43 crore for the December 2022 quarter. This is against a net profit of Rs290.07 crore in the year-ago period, Tata Consumer Products said in a regulatory filing. The consolidated revenue of Tata Consumer Products major grew by 8.29% to Rs 3474.55 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 3208.38 crore a year ago. Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter decreased by 2% to Rs 458 crore.

Railtel Corporation: RailTel Corporation informed on Thursday, that the company has received a Work Order from the State Bank of India (SBI) for providing 4G LTE connectivity to 15,000 offsite ATMs across the country. The mini-ratna public sector undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Railways will also take care of the operation and maintenance of the whole network for a period of five years. “Besides last mile connectivity, the project also includes the establishment of Network Operations Centre (NOC), backhaul connectivity to the data centre & disaster recovery centre (DC-DR) of SBI, live dashboard for SLA monitoring, 24X7 helpdesk, etc," the PSU mentioned in a press release.

Hindustan Zinc: The government is expected to sell a part of its remaining stake in Hindustan Zinc Ltd by next month said DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey. This stake sale will support it achieve the revised sell-off target of Rs 50,000 crore for the current fiscal, he added. In the coming fiscal, the government has lined up strategic stake sales in firms like HLL Lifecare, PDIL, Shipping Corporation and BEML in order to meet the disinvestment target set in the 2023-24 Budget. Centre presently holds a 29.54% stake in Hindustan Zinc or HZL. In 2002, it sold 26% of HZL to the mining billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta group.

MOIL: State-owned miner MOIL on Thursday said that its quarterly net profit fell 68.1% year-on-year to Rs 39.52 crore in the quarter ended December. The firm reported a profit of Rs123.88 crore in the corresponding period of previous year. In the third quarter, the profit after tax was 45% higher than the second quarter of FY23, the Ministry of Steel said in a statement. Net sales fell 16.89% to Rs 302 crore in the October-December quarter. The revenue from operations, so, rose 28% sequentially from Rs 236 crore.

Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals: Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd on Thursday reported a 40% decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 88.19 crore in the December quarter effected by higher expenses. The firm had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 148.26 crore in the year-ago period, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd (CGCEL) said in a regulatory filing. Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs1,516.21 crore as against Rs1,410.59 crore a year ago, it added. Total expenses were higher at Rs1,422.92 crore, up from Rs1,225.9 crore in the third quarter of last fiscal, it added.

Berger Paints: Berger Paints India Ltd on Thursday reported a decline of 20.47% in its consolidated net profit at Rs201.17 crore in the third quarter completed December 2022. The company had posted a net profit of Rs252.97 crore in the October-December period a year ago, Berger Paints said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue from operations was up 5.59% at Rs2,693.59 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs2,550.77 crore in the year-ago period. Berger Paints' total expenses were at Rs2,437.84 crore, up 9.39% in Q3/FY23, as against Rs2,228.56 crore a year ago.

Godrej Properties: Realty company Godrej Properties on Thursday reported a 51% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs58.74 crore for the third quarter ended December 2022, while sales booking jumped over two-fold to Rs3,252 crore on strong housing demand. Its net profit stood at Rs39.02 crore in the year-ago period. The total income declined to Rs 404.58 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal from Rs 466.91 crore in the corresponding period of the last year, according to a regulatory filing.

Apollo Tyres: Apollo Tyres on Thursday said its consolidated net profit increased 30% to Rs 292 crore for the December quarter, supported by robust sales in the domestic market. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 224 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations rose 13% to Rs 6,423 crore, as against Rs 5,707 crore in the October-December quarter of the last fiscal, the company said in a statement. "The domestic demand has helped us tide over the recessionary trends elsewhere. Having said that, our European Operations have still outperformed the market in the first 9 months of this fiscal," Apollo Tyres Chairman Onkar Kanwar stated.