Tata Motors stocks will be in focus as Jaguar Land Rover on Thursday reported its best ever November retail sales of 46,547 vehicles, up 27 per cent as compared to November last year despite a slowdown in China, the world’s largest auto market. (Photo: Reuters)

The benchmark BSE Sensex jumped over 100 points in opening trade on Thursday following value buying in blue-chip stocks coupled with mixed Asians cues. At 10 am, Sensex was trading 92.58 points up at 25,128.63. Similarly, Nifty was trading 26.70 points up at 7,639.20 during the same time.

Below are the 8 top stocks that are likely to be in focus today:

Infosys: Shares of the software major were trading 0.57 per cent up at Rs 1035.25 after the company on Wednesday announced that it has made an investment of $4 million in CloudEndure, a startup that provides cloud migration and cloud-based Disaster Recovery (DR) software.

Realty stocks: Stocks of real estate companies like DLF, Unitech, Godrej Properties among others will be in focus as the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015, as reported by the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha.

United Spirits Ltd: Diageo-controlled United Spirits Ltd (USL) is seeking nod from its shareholders through a special resolution to provide corporate guarantee to a Rs 100-crore loan that its subsidiary Pioneer Distillers is availing from Standard Chartered Bank. In a BSE filing, the company said its Board of Directors had on November 2, approved a decision of “providing corporate guarantee” for the financial assistance of Rs 100 crore that Pioneer Distilleries is seeking from the bank to be used for funding capacity expansion and for other capital needs.

Tata Motors: Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday reported its best ever November retail sales of 46,547 vehicles, up 27 per cent as compared to November last year despite a slowdown in China, the world’s largest auto market. The Coventry-based luxury car maker sold 437,512 vehicles in the first 11 months of 2015, four per cent up on the same period in the previous year.

Aurobindo Pharma: Aurobindo Pharma has received US health regulator’s approval to market Eptifibatide Injection, used in the treatment of acute coronary syndrome, in the American market. The company has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market Eptifibatide Injection, Aurobindo Pharma said in a filing to the BSE.

Wipro Ltd: Wipro Digital, the digital arm of Wipro, said its has set up a new “London pod” to offer enhanced digital transformation services to its customers in the UK and other parts of Europe. Wipro Digital also intends to continue its hiring in the UK to support business growth and expand its range of offerings, it said in a statement.

Biocon Ltd: NeoBiocon, a collaboration between Biocon Ltd and BR Shetty led UAE-based Neopharma, has partnered with Novartis Middle East FZE to market diabetes drugs Jalra and Jalra-M in the UAE. The partnership will help NeoBiocon expand its product offerings in the metabolics segment and will immensely benefit diabetics in UAE, Biocon Ltd on Thursday said in a statement.

Asian Paints: Asian Paints on Wednesday said its overseas subsidiary Asian Paints (International) Limited (APIL), Mauritius, has    transferred its entire holding in Asian Paints (Vanuatu) Limited to Singapore-based Berger International. “As part of the company’s plan to consolidate its investments in the overseas subsidiaries, Asian Paints (International) Ltd (APIL), Mauritius, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company has transferred its entire holding of 60 per cent held in the subsidiary company, Asian Paints (Vanuatu) Ltd to Berger International Private Ltd, Singapore,” Asian Paints said in a BSE filing.

V-Guard Industries: V-Guard Industries on Wednesday said it has set up a manufacturing unit of voltage stabilisers in Sikkim to meet the growing demand of stabilisers in non-south markets. “The unit is eligible for benefits under North East Industrial & Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), 2007 which also covers the state of Sikkim,” it said in a filing to BSE.

Jain Irrigation: Jain Irrigation Systems has bagged a Rs 2.2 billion contract from Tanzania authority DAWASA for supply and installation of water distribution network in the capital city ‘Dar Es Salaam’. “The USD 32.98 million (Rs 2.2 billion) project is an integrated water supply project with unique design to ensure reduced water supply losses (in) entire network,” the company said in a BSE filing.

Since last Wednesday, over a third of stocks in the BSE 200 have lost over 6% of their value while 13 have dropped by over 10%. Foreign investors have liquidated close to $470 million worth of Indian shares in this time. (Express Photo)

The Sensex continued on its losing streak for the sixth straight session on Wednesday, giving up a total of 1,133 points or 4.33% over the period, reports fe Bureau in Mumbai. Since last Wednesday, over a third of stocks in the BSE 200 have lost over 6% of their value while 13 have dropped by over 10%. Foreign investors have liquidated close to $470 million worth of Indian shares in this time.

Commodity producers, public sector banks and over-leveraged companies dominate the list of losers with names like JP Associates, Oriental Bank, Vedanta, UCO Bank, Unitech and Jindal Steel & Power being the prominent scrips.

Foreign portfolio investors continued to take risk off the table ahead of the scheduled meeting of US Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) on December 16 and 17.Growing concerns that the goods and services tax Bill may not be passed in the winter session as was earlier though probable also weighed on investor sentiment. Overseas investors remained net sellers on Wednesday, offloading shares worth $79 million, provisional data from exchanges show.

Bata India, India’s largest footwear retailer, will face an existential crisis, as it cedes distribution equity to e-commerce (footwear market size of $500mn). The under-investment in the brand (meager 1% of revenues over CY08-15) will bite into future earnings whereas the over-investment in stores will cap capital efficiency. FY17E EBITDA margin of 12.4% remains a far cry away from its historical peak (15.6% in CY13) given high fixed costs (35% of FY15 sales) amid pressure to increase commissions and ad-spend. A significant turnaround is some time away given (a) historical high inventory (nine months) requiring write-downs; (b) high possibility for gross margin compression and (c) declining asset turns (2.4x in FY17 from 3.1x in CY09); we expect FY17E RoE to be 19%.
We re-initiate with Sell and implied valuation of 23.5x FY17E EPS.

Over CY09-FY15, Bata generated Rs 12 bn CFO; rather than investing in the brand, it expanded retail space to 3.3mn sq ft (from 1.3mn), investing 1/4th CFO in brandex vs equal outlay by peers. Unparalleled network (>500 cities) and 84-year-old history made it a default consumer choice until customer moved online and started buying more aspirational brands, easily available online than Bata.

Bata brand’s diminishing distribution equity is evident from the muted growth (10%/4% in CY13/FY15) despite adding 50% more space.

Drugmaker Alkem Laboratories filled the order book for its $200 million initial public offering in the second day of book-building after attracting strong demand from institutional investors, according to exchanges data. (Photo: Reuters)

Drugmaker Alkem Laboratories filled the order book for its $200 million initial public offering in the second day of book-building after attracting strong demand from institutional investors, according to exchanges data.

Alkem had received orders for about 11.8 million shares, or about 1.3 times the number of shares being offered as of 1548 India time (1018 GMT), according to data from exchanges National Stock Exchange and BSE Ltd.

Institutional investors were active bidders, placing orders worth 2.3 times the number of shares available to them.

Alkem is aiming to raise up to 13.5 billion rupees ($201.94 million) in its IPO, and has set a price band of 1,020 rupees to 1,050 rupees per share.

The offering closes on Thursday.

Retirement fund body EPFO’s investments in stock markets are not backed by any guarantee by the government as these are subject to market movements, Parliament was informed today. (PTI)

Retirement fund body EPFO’s investments in stock markets are not backed by any guarantee by the government as these are subject to market movements, Parliament was informed today.

“The government has not provided any guarantee for such investments in the stock market as investment in such instruments are subject to market movements,” Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to Rajay Sabha.

“Some of the trade unions have expressed reservations over the decision to invest in equity as they are concerned about the risk associated with the investments in stock market,” the minister informed the House.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) started investing in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) from August 6 and it has plan to invest 5 per cent of its incremental deposits into ETFs during the current fiscal.

Dattatreya explained that EPFO’s apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has approved the proposal of investing in ETFs after considering the possible risk associated with the investments.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha in a reply yesterday had said: “Investments in ETF started in August and a total of Rs 3,174 crore has been invested till November 30.”

EPFO expects to receive Rs 1.2 lakh crore as incremental deposits during the current fiscal. Thus, it is likely to invest around Rs 6,000 crore in ETFs during 2015-16.