Stocks in news: Bharti Airtel, PNB Housing Finance, Paytm, NTPC and more

The Indian equity market is likely to open higher today as SGX Nifty rose 306 points to 16,651. Sensex and Nifty closed higher for the second straight session on Wednesday after exit polls signaled that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looked set to retain power in the key electoral battle of Uttar Pradesh.

Sensex ended 1223 points higher at 54,647 and Nifty gained 331 points to 16,345. Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance and IndusInd Bank were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.56 per cent.

Power Grid, NTPC, Tata Steel and Nestle India were the only losers, declining up to 1.89 per cent.

Here's a look at stocks that are likely to remain in news today.

Bharti Airtel: The telco has inked a pact to buy a 9 percent equity stake in Avaada CleanTN Project, a special purpose vehicle. This SPV is formed for owning and operating the captive power plant.

PNB Housing Finance: The housing finance company has approved raising of up to Rs 2,500 crore through a rights issue.

Biocon: CRISIL has placed its 'AA+' rating on the long-term bank facilities of the company on 'Watch with Developing Implications', after the acquisition of biosimilar assets of US-based Viatris Inc by its subsidiary Biocon Biologics for $3.33 billion. The rating on the short-term bank facilities has been reaffirmed at 'A1+'.

Paytm: Paytm Payments Bank is likely to apply to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a licence of small finance bank (SFB) by June, according to a report.

Gufic Biosciences: The company has entered the cancer immunology segment by undertaking research collaboration with Australia-based biotechnology company Selvax Pty Ltd.

Arvind: The company said its operations have fully restarted at the Ankur unit. Operations at the Ankur unit had been disrupted due to disconnection of the effluent discharge connection.

Kajaria Ceramics: The tiles maker has launched its largest store in the country to sell tiles and bathware products. The 100th Kajaria Eternity World showroom, which has come up in an 11,000 square feet area in Lajpat Nagar, offers tiles and Kerovit bathware products under one roof.

NTPC: The state-owned power giant announced that unit-3 of the 660 MW capacity of Nabinagar Power Generating Company Limited has successfully completed the trial operation and consequently included in the installed capacity of the group. The total installed capacity of NTPC Group has reached a level of 68,567.18 MW.

Larsen & Toubro: The infrastructure major's arm L&T Construction has won a significant order from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to design and construct the underground metro project of Phase-IV of Delhi MRTS.