Stocks to Watch: Adani Ports, Wipro, Tata Power, Vedanta, Asian Paints

Adani Ports: Billionaire Gautam Adani-led Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd has paid ₹1,500 crore loan on Monday and promised to repay more as the embattled empire mapped a comeback strategy amid a rout in the group stocks triggered by a bombshell US short-seller Hindenburg Research’s report released on 24 January. Adani Ports and SEZ has paid SBI Mutual Funds’ due amount of ₹1,500 crore and the unit will also prepay a short-term debt of ₹1,000 crore of commercial papers due next month, a company spokesperson said.

Wipro: Wipro Ltd has asked campus hires selected for one programme to join another that pays 46% less, in a move that has sparked uncertainty among the chosen candidates. India’s fourth largest software services company wrote to tech graduates it had hired for the Turbo programme with salary offers of ₹6.5 lakh per annum that they would instead be placed in the Elite programme, which offers ₹3.5 lakh. “In light of the changing macro environment and, as a result, our business needs, we had to adjust our onboarding plans,” Wipro said in response to a query.

Adani Power/Tata Power: Power stocks will be in focus as the government on Monday invoked an emergency law, pushing power plants that run on imported coal to maximize output. The Power Ministry expects a peak demand of 229 gigawatts in April. According to the report, many of India’s power plants that use imported coal, including those owned by Adani Power and Tata Power in the western state of Gujarat, have not operated at full capacity recently because they have found it difficult to compete with power generated from cheap domestic coal.

Vedanta: In a setback to billionaire Anil Agarwal’s mining group, the government has opposed Vedanta Ltd’s proposal to sell its international zinc business to Hindustan Zinc Ltd for USD 2.98 billion over concerns of valuation. The government has threatened to take legal action to stop the sale of the Africa-based assets to HZL, in which it holds a 29.54% stake. In a letter to HZL, posted by the company to stock exchanges, the Ministry of Mines said the deal is a “related party transaction” and the government would “like to reiterate” its dissent.

Asian Paints: One of the leading paints manufacturers in India, Asian Paints on Monday entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government to set up a manufacturing facility in Dahej. The MoU was signed through its newly incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary, Asian Paints (Polymers). Asian Paints subsidiary will set up the manufacturing facility for Vinyl Acetate Ethylene Emulsion (VAE) and Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) at Dahej, Gujarat.

BEML: BEML Limited, formerly known as Bharat Earth Movers Limited, is a “Schedule “A” Company under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, and is involved in the production of mining equipment, rail coaches, and spare parts for industries such as defence, rail, power, and infrastructure. BEML Limited, a prominent producer of domestic metro rolling stock in India, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) led SPV, for constructing the Bahrain Metro Rail Project Phase-1.

IOCL/BPCL/HPCL: Moody’s Investors Service on Monday affirmed the ratings of India’s three state-owned oil refining and marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL). It added that the outlooks on the ratings for all three-oil refining and marketing companies remain stable. The stable outlook reflects our view that the credit metrics of these companies will be within our rating thresholds by March 2024, said Sweta Patodia, a Moody’s AVP and analyst.

PTC India: Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has decided against bidding for a stake in state-backed electricity trader PTC India Ltd., people familiar with the matter said, as his business empire looks to preserve cash amid criticism from a US short-seller. State-owned entities NTPC Ltd., NHPC Ltd., Power Grid Corp. of India and Power Finance Corp. have been working with an adviser to weigh selling their stakes of 4% each in PTC India, people familiar with the matter have said.

NHPC: State-owned hydro power giant NHPC on Monday raised ₹996 crore through the issuance of non-convertible bonds on a private placement basis. “NHPC Limited has raised ₹996 crore on February 20, 2023, through unsecured, redeemable, non-convertible, non-cumulative and taxable 7.59 per cent AD series bonds on a private placement basis,” according to a filing. The bonds are proposed for listing in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment of BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Gland Pharma: Gland Pharma on Monday announced that it would be investing ₹400 crore to create additional capabilities in its existing facility at Genome Valley here to manufacture biologicals, biosimilars, antibodies and recombinant Insulin. An official release from the state government said the expanded facility will have employment generation potential of more than 500 qualified, skilled and semi-skilled workforce to be recruited, mostly from nearby places.