Stocks in news: RIL, Infosys, Wipro, Axis Bank, LTIMindtree, Adani Enterprises, TCS & Zomato

Indian benchmark indices continued to settle lower on Thursday on the back of weaker sales forecast during the festive season and muted Q2 earnings of India Inc so far. BSE Sensex dropped 494.75 points or 0.61 per cent, to end at 81,006.61. NSE's Nifty50 dropped 221.45 points, or 0.89 per cent, to close at 24,749.85. Here are the stocks that may remain under spotlight before the opening bell on Friday, October 18, 2024:

Corporate actions today: Shares of Tata Consultancy Services and Anand Rathi Wealth may trade ex-dividend today. Also, shares of HEG, Sacheta Metals and Hummingbirds Education will trade ex-split today.

Q2 results today: Shares of Hindustan Zinc, Jio Financial Services, Tata Consumer Products, ICICI Lombard GIC, Oberoi Realty, L&T Finance, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals, Tejas Networks, Elecon Engineering Company, Aether Industries, Zee Entertainment Enterprises , Mastek, Ganesh Housing Corporation and more will announce Q2 results later today.

Reliance Industries: Reliance Brands Holding UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Brands, has deepened its partnership with Mothercare Plc by forming a new joint venture that will own the Mothercare brand and its intellectual property assets across India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

Infosys: India's second-largest software exporter reported a 5% growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 6,506 crore, while revenue rose 4.2% to Rs 40,986 crore in Q2FY25. The company has revised its FY25 revenue guidance to 3.75%–4.5%. The upward revision of revenue guidance for the fiscal comes on the back of a ramp-up of mega deals.

Kotak Mahindra Bank: The private sector lender has reduced its savings account interest rates by 50 basis points for account balances under Rs 5 lakh, bringing the new rate to 3 per cent, suggested media reports.

Axis Bank: The private lender reported a standalone net profit increase of 18% YoY at Rs 6,918 crore, compared to a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 5,864 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. The bank’s Net Interest Income (NII) grew 9% YoY to Rs 13,483 crore, while its Net Interest Margin (NIM) for Q2FY25 stood at 3.99%.

Wipro: The IT solutions provider reported a 21% YoY rise in net profit at Rs 3,209 crore for the September 2024 quarter. Its revenue grew 1.4% to Rs 3,732.2 crore with margins expanding to 16.8%. The IT major also announced a bonus share issue in proportion of 1:1.

Adani Enterprises: The Adani Group company has completed the qualified institutional placement (QIP) amounting to Rs 4,200 crore ($500 million). The proceeds from the QIP will be utilized for funding capital expenditure, debt repayment, and general corporate purposes.

LTIMindtree: The IT solutions provider reported a 7.75% YoY increase in its consolidated net profits to Rs 1,251 crore for the second quarter ended September 2024. Its revenue for the quarter under review came in at Rs 9,432 crore, 5.91% higher YoY, with margins expanding 50bps to 15.5%.

Zomato: The food delivery platform's company board will meet on October 22 to consider raising funds via a qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue and to review the unaudited financial results for the quarter and half year ended September 2024.

Zydus Lifesciences: The pharma company has received final approval from the USFDA to manufacture Fludrocortisone Acetate tablets USP, 0.1 mg. Fludrocortisone acetate tablets are used as partial replacement therapy for primary and secondary adrenocortical insufficiency in Addison's disease and for the treatment of salt-losing adrenogenital syndrome.

Coromandel International: The chemical company has incorporated its wholly-owned subsidiary, Coromandel Vietnam Company, in Vietnam. The subsidiary will help the company carry out export, import, wholesale, and retail distribution of agricultural inputs such as crop nutrition, crop protection chemicals, and bio-products.

Aether Industries: The chemical player has executed and commissioned another 5 MW solar power project (auto-tracker modules) facility out of the total 15 MW solar power project. With this, a cumulative 10 MW is now operational. The remaining execution is scheduled to be completed in the coming month.

Indraprastha Gas: According to communication from GAIL India (the nodal agency for domestic gas allocation), there has been a major reduction in domestic gas allocation to Indraprastha Gas effective October 16. The revised domestic gas allocation to the company is approximately 21 per cent less than the previous allocation, which will adversely impact its profitability.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam: Punjab and Sind Bank has classified the accounts of MTNL as non-performing assets (NPA), effective October 8.

Nitco: The ceramics company has entered into a one-time settlement (OTS) with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for its debt facilities. LIC has approved the OTS proposal, and accordingly, the company paid the one-time settlement amount on October 16 towards its entire dues outstanding with LIC.