Stocks to Watch: Adani Group, Zee Ent, IIFL Sec, Ultratech, Shree Cements, HDFC

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

Adani Group: The valuation of Adani Group's eight companies more than halved in the six months to April 2023 against just a 6 per cent decline in the top 500 non-government companies, said news agency PTI quoting a report. Adani Total Gas lost 73.8 per cent of its value, Adani Transmission saw a decline of 69.2 per cent, while Adani Green Energy was down by 54.7 per cent, said a report by Axis Bank's Burgundy Private and Hurun India. Adani Enterprises and Adani Total Gas also moved out of the top 10 most valuable firms during the period under review, the report said.

Zee Entertainment: Sony Corp. has no plans to back out of the merger of Sony Pictures Networks India (now Culver Max Entertainment Pvt. Ltd) with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, despite allegations of funds diversion made against its promoters Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka by India’s markets regulator. Sony remains fully committed to the merger in its original shape, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said, amid market concerns over the fate of the $1.7 billion deal.

IIFL Securities: IIFL Securities will move to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) order to ban the company from onboarding new clients for two years. The market regulator on Monday barred IIFL Securities from taking new clients for 2 years in respect of its business as a stockbroker for alleged mis-utilisation of client funds. Sebi found that IIFL Securities has misused the funds of its credit balance clients for settlement of its proprietary trades.

Ultratech/Shree Cement/Ambuja: After clocking a 4 per cent compound annual growth rate over the past four years, cement companies are likely to cut prices marginally by 1-3 per cent this fiscal despite healthy demand, due to the increasing competition, according to a report. Cooling input costs will also help cut retail prices, Crisil Ratings said in a report on Tuesday. The cement prices hit an all-time high due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, followed by a sharp surge in input costs, especially thermal coal.

HDFC/HDFC Bank: A consortium of private equity firms, including BPEA EQT and ChrysCapital, has acquired a 90 per cent stake in HDFC Credila Financial Services for ₹9,060 crore, HDFC Ltd said. The sale of HDFC Credila, the education loan arm of the HDFC comes ahead of the completion of HDFC's merger with HDFC Bank. In April, the RBI had asked HDFC to reduce its stake in Credila to under 10 per cent over the next two years. The PE consortium includes Kopvoorn B.V., Moss Investments Ltd, Defati Investments Holding B.V. and Infinity Partners.

Bharat Electronics: Bharat Electronics (BEL) has received orders worth ₹5,900 crore, of which ₹3,914 crore of orders are from the Akash Prime Weapon System. The public sector defence unit said it has received orders for two regiments of the improved Akash Weapon System with upgrades from BDL for a value of ₹3,914 crore. Akash is an all-weather, point/area air-defence weapon system for defending vulnerable points/areas against threats emanating from low, medium and high altitudes.

Shriram Finance: Piramal Enterprises will offload its entire stake in NBFC major Shriram Finance via a block deal, according to a news report by CNBC-TV 18, citing sources. Piramal Enterprises will sell around 3.1 crore of its shares in Shriram Finance at a floor price of ₹1,483 per share, which is at a discount of up to 5 per cent to the current market price of Shriram Finance shares. Investment banking firm Morgan Stanley will be the sole broker for the block deal, according to the report.

Tamilnadu Petroproducts: Tamilnadu Petroproducts Ltd on Tuesday said it would invest up to ₹13.88 crore by acquiring 2.73 per cent paid-up equity capital in Mumbai-based Dalavaipuram Renewables. Tamilnadu Petroproducts Ltd is a part of AM International Singapore. Dalavaipuram Renewables Pvt Ltd was incorporated as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the objective of setting up a wind and solar captive power plant at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and operating a plant for the purpose of generating and selling power.

PTC India: The board of controversy-hit PTC India Financial Services has sent its MD & CEO Pawan Singh on leave till his superannuation in October amid persistent allegations of corporate misgovernance. A person in the know said that the move follows a recent directive from the Reserve Bank of India. “RBI recently directed the board to ask the MD to proceed on leave, following which the board on Tuesday approved the directive to send him on leave," said the person in the know of the development.

Bandhan Bank: Bandhan Bank is looking to expand its affordable home loan portfolio, aiming to carve out a niche in a segment with a limited presence of lenders. The Kolkata-based private sector bank wants to increase the share of housing loans to 30% of the total loan book by fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) from 25% now, chief executive Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said in an interview. It is also looking to go solo in credit cards after launching a co-branded card with Standard Chartered Bank four years ago.