Stocks worth Monitoring: Coal India, Eicher Motors, SAIL, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Aurobindo Pharma

On Tuesday, February 13, 2024, the Indian benchmark equity indices are expected to open on a positive note, following gains in key Asian markets. At 7:30 AM, Gift Nifty futures were quoted at around 21,730 compared to the spot Nifty close of 21,616 on Monday. These are the stocks to watch today.

Coal India: The company has reported a 17 percent increase in its consolidated net profit, amounting to Rs 9,069 crore, for the quarter ending December 31, 2023. This is compared to the Rs 7,755 crore recorded during the same period last year. Revenue from operations witnessed a modest 3 percent year-on-year growth, totalling Rs 36,154 crores in Q3FY24, as opposed to the Rs 35,169 crores reported in the corresponding period last year. Additionally, the board has announced a second interim dividend of Rs 5.25 per share for FY24.

Eicher Motors: The company is expected to release its Q3FY24 results on Tuesday, February 13. Analysts estimate that Eicher Motors will announce a solid double-digit growth in net profit and high single-digit growth in revenue, aided by strong sales volumes in Royal Enfield bikes and its commercial vehicles portfolio. The estimated increase in consolidated net profit is 29.49 percent YoY, at Rs 959.28 crore. The estimated jump in revenue is 8.24 percent, at Rs 4,027.74 crore. Additionally, the EBITDA margin is expected to rise by 319 bps to 26.19 percent.

Steel Authority of India: The net profit of the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) dropped by 22 percent to Rs 422.92 crore in the December quarter, compared to Rs 542.18 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. As per the exchange filing made by SAIL on February 12, revenue from operations for the quarter decreased by 6 percent to Rs 23,348.64 crore from Rs 25,042.10 crore a year ago. The crude steel production in the quarter stood at 4.75 million tonnes versus 4.71 million tonnes reported in the same quarter last year. Additionally, the PSU has announced an interim dividend of Rs 1 per equity share of Rs 10 each.

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders: The company's net profit in Q3FY24 increased by 76 percent YoY to Rs 592 crore. Additionally, its revenue for the same quarter rose by 30 percent YoY to Rs 2,363 crore, while EBITDA increased by 71 percent to Rs 808 crore. Finance costs have also decreased from Rs 1.48 crore to Rs 1.29 crore in the current quarter. The company's sub-contract expenses have also significantly decreased from Rs 224.69 crore to Rs 143.81 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Moreover, other project-related expenses have also decreased from Rs 41.47 crore to Rs 40.58 crore in the previous year. As of December 2023, the company's order book stood at Rs 38,389 crore.

Aurobindo Pharma: The company anticipates a $20-million hit in the January-March 2024 quarter, due to a temporary pause of manufacturing and distribution activities at its crucial Eugia Unit-III formulation facility in Telangana, following certain red flags raised by the US drug regulatory agency FDA in the recently concluded inspections. The company said it is planning to resume manufacturing operations in a phased manner starting with non-aseptic lines. The FDA issued Form 483 with 9 observations against the facility at the conclusion of the inspection on February 2. The company, as an "abundant caution", put on hold manufacturing at certain lines. The company, in its earnings call on Monday, said the observations are related to certain gaps in the "aseptic process and documentation".

Hindalco Industries: The company's subsidiary Novelis recorded a net income attributable to common shareholders of $121 million for the quarter ended December FY24, growing 10-fold over $12 million in the year-ago period. Net sales decreased 6 percent YoY to $3.9 billion for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2024, driven by lower average aluminium prices as shipments were in line with prior-year levels.

Dilip Buildcon: The construction and infrastructure development company registered a 3.3 percent year-on-year decline in consolidated profit at Rs 107.4 crore despite healthy topline and operating numbers. Revenue from operations during the quarter at Rs 2,876.8 crore increased by 23.87 percent over a year-ago period.

Paytm: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday ruled out any review of the central bank’s action against Paytm Payments Bank, saying the decision was taken after a lot of consideration and a comprehensive analysis of the lender’s functioning. The RBI on January 31, had directed PPBL to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in customer accounts, wallets, FASTTags and other instruments after February 29 citing large-scale non-compliance with regulations and supervisory concerns. “At the moment let me say very clearly, there is no review of this decision", Das said at a press conference after a meeting of the RBI’s central board of directors. The meeting was also addressed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Bandhan Bank: EY, one of the Big Four accounting firms, has been conducting a forensic audit on a portion of Bandhan Bank's loan book, which is backed by government guarantees. This audit has been commissioned by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Co. (NCGTC), a state-run entity that manages various credit guarantee trust funds of the government. The audit will cover Bandhan Bank's loans, which amount to approximately Rs 23,000 crore. NCGTC has requested EY to review whether the bank used two different government guarantees for the same set of loans, identify fake borrowers (if any), determine if there was any window-dressing or evergreening of loans, and verify if the loans were ineligible for the government schemes.

Jindal Steel & Power: The company Jindal Africa recently had their environmental application to build a $2 billion iron-ore mine in South Africa rejected. When contacted by Bloomberg, Parshant Kumar Goyal, the general manager for mines and business development at Jindal Africa, said the company will appeal the decision. All Rise, an environmental legal organization, stated that the application was denied due to "extensive gaps in the environmental impact assessment in the context of constitutional rights" in a statement on Monday.