Stocks to Watch: Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HUL, Paytm

New Delhi: Here are a few stocks likely to be in focus on Saturday's special trading session:

Reliance Industries: The company reported its December quarter results along expected lines. Its telecom and retail segments contributed significantly to revenue and Ebitda, while oil-to-chemicals revenue declined on lower price realisation led by a decline in average Brent crude oil prices. Its consolidated PAT for Q3FY24 rose 10.9 % year-on-year (YoY) to ₹19,641 crore. RIL's gross revenue rose 3.2 % YoY to ₹2,48,160 crore led by continued growth momentum in consumer businesses.

ICICI Bank: The country's second largest private lender is likely to report a 20% year-on-year (YoY) growth in standalone net profit at ₹9,946 crore for the third of the FY24, on Saturday, January 20. According to a poll of brokerages, net interest income is set to rise 12% from the year-ago period to ₹18,431 crore. 

Kotak Mahindra Bank: The private lender is expected to reported a 16% year-on-year increase in standalone net profit at ₹3,243 crore for the quarter ended December 2023. A poll of brokerages has projected NII at ₹6,434 crore, jumping 14% from the year-ago period, when it reports its results on 20 January. This will be the bank's first quarterly results announcement with Ashok Vaswani at the helm.

Adani Group: The infrastructure conglomerate has released pledged shares worth ₹2,878 crore ($346.2 million) related to four of its companies during the December quarter, BSE data analyzed by Mint showed. The group released a total 28.67 million pledged promoter shares across Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, and Adani Energy Solutions.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises: Sony Group looks all set to pull the plug on the proposed $10-billion merger of its India unit with Zee Entertainment Enterprises after more than two years of negotiations. The deal seems to be unravelling as the media giants have failed to agree on who would lead the combined entity, with the Japanese conglomerate disinclined to have Zee’s Punit Goenka at the helm, said two people with direct knowledge of the developments.

Paytm: The parent company of digital payments major Paytm, One 97 Communications, posted a rise in revenue by 38% to ₹2,850.5 crore, compared to ₹2,062.2 crore in the year-ago period, the company reported in its Q3FY24 results. Its consolidated net loss narrowed to ₹221 crore from ₹392 crore reported in the corresponding quarter last financial year. The firm has not posted a net profit since it went public in November 2021.

Hindustan Unilever: The company, whose performance is seen as a proxy for the broader consumer sentiment in India, reported a flat 0.55% increase in December quarter net profit to ₹2,519 crore, well below Street estimates. A Bloomberg survey of analysts had expected the company to report a standalone profit of ₹2,680 crore in Q3FY24. Revenue dropped a marginal 0.26% to ₹15,188 crore from ₹15,228 crore a year earlier, on account on price cuts on its laundry and skin cleansing portfolio as commodities such as palm oil saw “meaningful correction”. Underlying sales growth was flat due to price cuts.

RBL Bank: The private sector lender reported a rise of 11% in net profit at ₹233 crore, compared to ₹209 crore in the year-ago period. The private sector lender's net interest income (NII) in the third quarter of FY24 rose 35% to ₹1,546 crore, compared to ₹1,277 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The bank's gross non-performing asset (NPA) stood at 3.12 %, down from 3.61 percent recorded in the same quarter last year. The net NPA for the December quarter stood at 0.8 % compared to 1.18% in the year-ago period.

Central Bank of India: The state-owned bank's net profit surged 57% to ₹718 crore in the third quarter of FY24, compared to a net profit of ₹458 crore in the same quarter a year ago, it said in an exchange filing. The bank's total income was reported at ₹9,139 crore during the December quarter, compared to ₹7,636 crore in the same period last fiscal year. Its net interest income (NII) declined to ₹3,152 crore in the quarter, compared to ₹3,285 crore in the same period a year ago.

Hindustan Zinc: The miner posted a rise of 17% in standalone net profit at ₹2,038 crore, compared to ₹2,157 crore in the year-ago period as it announced its December quarter results for FY24 on January 19. For the nine months ended December 31, 2023, the company's revenue declined 7% at ₹7,310 crore, compared to ₹7,866 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing. EBITDA for Q3FY24 stood at ₹3,560, down 4%, compared to ₹3,717 crore in the year-ago period.