Stocks to Watch: Textiles, Amara Raja, Airtel, TCS, ITC, Ajanta Pharma

Textiles shares shall be in limelight as the government has released the operational guidelines for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme

The key benchmark indices are likely to start trade on a tepid note given the mixed overseas cues. As of 08:05 AM, the SGX Nifty January futures were quoted at 17,267, down 19 points. Meanwhile, here the top stocks to focus in trade today.

Pharma stocks: Thirteen Indian companies can now manufacture and market oral antiviral drug Molnupiravir developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics after the country’s drug regulator granted approval for restricted use under emergency situations for Covid-infected adults in high-risk category. The approval for Molnupiravir assumes significance, as it can become an affordable oral treatment for Covid. READ MORE

Textiles: The Centre on Tuesday released the operational guidelines for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles. Under this, companies can begin the registration process from January 1-31, 2022, on the government’s online portal. Incentives worth Rs 10,683 crore will be provided over five years for manufacturing man-made fabrics, garments — jerseys, overcoats, trousers, polyester suitings and shirtings, among others. READ MORE

Amara Raja Batteries: The company as part of its strategic initiatives to venture into new-energy business and EV batteries has agreed to invest up to Euro 10 million by way of equity and convertible bonds in InBot Auto AS, Oslo Norway in one or more tranaches.

Banks: Proving sceptics wrong, 2020-21 turned out to be the best in recent years for Indian banks in terms of their financial performance. The pandemic-hit financial year was marked by a “discernible increase” in profitability, as banks’ income remained stable but expenditure declined, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) observed in the annual Trends & Progress Report.

The declining trend in bad loans that started in 2018 continued during the pandemic year, which saw gross NPAs of scheduled commercial banks dropping to 7.3 per cent as of March 2021. It was 8.2 per cent in March 2020, and further to 6.9 per cent in September 2021. READ MORE

ITC: Cigarettes-to-hotel conglomerate ITC has commissioned its first offsite solar plant at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. Built for Rs 76 crore, the plant will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the group’s businesses.

Meanwhile, the company has also entered into a partnership with South Korean Lotte Group-owned ice cream brand Havmor - following which the latter will sell ITC Master Chef Frozen snacks through its ice cream carts. READ MORE

Airlines: A day after SpiceJet and AirAsia announced discounter fares, Go First and IndiGo have also announced discounts for travel between January 15 and April 15. Go First’s is offering fares from Rs 1,022 and IndiGo from Rs 1,122.

Sun Pharma: Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on Tuesday said it is planning to set up a new end-to-end manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh.

Ajanta Pharma: The company said its board has approved a share buyback plan of up to Rs 286-crore, wherein the drug maker will buy back 11.20 lakh shares at a maximum price of Rs 2,550 apiece. READ MORE

Bharti Airtel, TCS: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have joined hands to build a 5G-based remote working technology using robotics, according to sources. Both the companies are currently running the trials in Airtel's 5G lab at Manesar, Haryana.

Stocks in F&O ban: Indiabulls Housing Finance, RBL Bank and Vodafone Idea are the only stocks in the F&O ban period today.