Stocks to Watch: TCS, HDFC, ONGC, JSW Steel, Paytm, Tata Motors

Tata Consultancy Services: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) on Monday reported a lower-than-expected 11% increase in fiscal third-quarter profit as customers tightened spending amid mounting concern about a worldwide economic recession.  Net profit rose to ₹10,846 crore in the quarter ended 31 December from ₹9,769 crore a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The company also announced a dividend and special interim dividend of ₹75 per equity share for fiscal FY23.

HDFC Ltd: HDFC-backed HDFC Capital on Monday garnered $376 million from investors for scheme 2 of the HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund–3 (H-CARE 3). The latest fundraising has created a $3.1 billion platform for affordable housing. H-CARE 3 will provide long-term, flexible funding across the lifecycle of affordable and mid-income housing projects including early-stage funding. Additionally, in its statement, the company said, H-CARE 3 will also invest in technology companies (construction technology, fin-tech, sustainability-tech, etc.) engaged in the affordable housing ecosystem.

ONGC: Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd, has re-taken a 20% stake in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas fields in the far east region of Russia, said an official on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin in October last year disbanded Exxon Neftegaz, a regional subsidiary of US super major ExxonMobil, as operator of the Sakhalin-1 and transferred the project and all of its assets and equipment to a new operator. OVL applied and has been given the same shareholding as it had previously, the official said.

JSW Steel: India’s second-largest private sector steel producer, JSW Steel recorded a combined crude steel production of t 6.24 million tonnes in the third quarter of FY23, rising by 17% year-on-year. Sequentially, the growth was around 10%. For the nine months period of FY23, the combined steel production is up by 15% year-on-year. During Q3FY23, the JSW Group flagship company posted a combined volume of 6.24 million tonnes versus 5.35 million tonnes in Q3FY22 and 5.68 million tonnes in Q2FY23.

Sona Blw Precision Forgings: Auto component maker Sona BLW Precision Forgings (Sona Comstar) on Monday said it will acquire a 54% stake in Serbia-based Novelic for 40.5 million euro (around ₹356 crore) enabling it to foray into the advanced driver assistance systems sensor market. In a regulatory filing, the company said it has inked an agreement to acquire a stake in the firm, which is a leading provider of mmWave radar sensors, perception solutions and full-stack embedded systems.

Paytm: Paytm, India’s digital payments and financial services company, saw a four-fold jump in loan disbursals in December 2022, and the average monthly transacting number of users soared. According to a regulatory filing, One97 Communications Ltd, which operates Paytm, disbursed 3.7 million loans worth ₹3,665 crore in December, up 330 per cent year-on-year. “As a result, total disbursements for three months ended December 2022 was ₹9,958 crore, a growth of 357 per cent y-o-y,” it said.

Tata Motors: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Monday forecasted free cash flow for the third quarter at more than 400 million pounds ($485 million), after reporting a 15% rise in wholesale volumes for the period on strong demand and improved chip supply. The British automaker, in its earnings statement for the second quarter, had forecast a positive cash flow for the second half of the fiscal year 2023 and “near breakeven” for the full year. Tata Motors, which acquired JLR in 2008, had earlier set a target of 1 billion pounds of free cash flow for the fiscal year.

PVR: Multiplex operator PVR aims to operate 1,000 screens by the end of FY24, by adding 100 more screens in the next 15 months, the company’s Joint Managing Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli said. The company, which on Monday achieved the milestone of 900 screens, would invest around ₹300 crore to add another 100 screens, Bijli said. As part of the expansion, the company is entering into newer cities, especially in the south and east parts of the country, where it has a negligible presence.

IDBI Bank: The Central Government has received interest from both domestic and foreign investors to acquire a majority stake in IDBI Bank in the first such transaction in the banking sector. The government aims to complete the disinvestment process in IDBI Bank within the first half of the next financial year, said DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey. “We hope to conclude IDBI Bank sale by the first half of the next financial year,” Pandey said. On Saturday, the government said it has received multiple preliminary bids for the strategic sale of about 61% stake in IDBI Bank.

Bandhan Bank: The collection efficiency ratio of private lender Bandhan Bank increased to 98 per cent at the end of December 2022 from 95 per cent at the end of the second quarter. An initial disclosure statement by the bank said that the ratio for micro-credit loans was 98 per cent at the end of December 2022, while for non-MFI loans, it was 99 per cent. Loans and advances of the bank at the end of December 2022 stood at 1,00,520 crore, registering a growth of 14 per cent year-on-year.