Experts Financial News

Residential real estate sector witnessed yet another stellar year with launches likely to reach approximately 300,000 units by end-2023, a remarkable 11% higher than the previous record year of 2022. In the last couple of years, the residential market has come out of a long period stagnancy in prices.

Metal stocks rallied for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, which saw the Nifty Metal index hitting a lifetime high. Rollover of positions to the January derivative series and a reversal in the dollar index are aiding the up move in the stocks in the sector. In four sessions, the Nifty Metal index has gained nearly 6% and hit a lifetime high of 7863.75 points. Among base metals, Hindalco Industries rose more than 3% and scaled a 52-week high of Rs 603. National Aluminium Co rose over 1% to Rs 116.85. Steelmakers across the board gained, with Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India, and JSW Steel rising 1-2%.

GAIL (India) Ltd. dropped 1.1 per cent to Rs 152.3 at 01:55PM (IST) in Wednesday's trade. The stock has hit a high of Rs 155.5 and low of Rs 150.75 so far during the session.

PI Industries Ltd. traded 0.1 per cent up at Rs 3456.0 at 01:50PM (IST) on Wednesday, even as BSE benchmark Sensex gained 327.96 points to 71664.76.

Shanti Spintex debuted at a premium of 8.6% on the BSE SME platform after a successful IPO. The stock then rallied further to hit the upper circuit of 5% at Rs 79.8 on Wednesday. The company offered its shares at Rs 66-70 for its Rs 31.25-crore IPO, which opened on December 19 and closed on December 21. The IPO, which was completely a fresh equity issue of shares, saw a subscription of 27.38 times at close.

European shares were marginally higher on Wednesday as robust China data lifted miners, while an overnight Wall Street rally amid persisting optimism the Federal Reserve could begin cutting rates as early as next March helped tech stocks rise. By 0814 GMT, the pan European STOXX 600 rose 0.1% at 477.83 points following an over 0.4% gain across major Wall Street indexes overnight. Basic resources was amongst the top gainers, rising 0.4% as most base metal and iron ore prices advanced after data showed manufacturing activity in top consumer China improved last month, while energy advanced 0.6%. The technology sector, which houses Europe's major chipmakers, jumped 0.7%, in line with their rising Wall Street counterparts. Keeping a lid on gains, telecoms and insurers fell 0.4% each. Volumes are expected to be light as traders return from an extended Christmas break with only a few trading days left in 2023. Bayer rose 1.7% after the German drugs-to-pesticides group said it has won a trial in a lawsuit brought by a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its Roundup weedkiller.

SRF Ltd. dropped 0.87 per cent to Rs 2469.0 at 02:00PM (IST) in Wednesday's trade. The counter has hit a high of Rs 2512.0 and low of Rs 2461.1 so far during the session.

Varun Beverages Ltd. dropped 0.81 per cent to Rs 1240.0 at 02:10PM (IST) in Wednesday's trade. The counter has hit a high of Rs 1250.7 and low of Rs 1235.5 so far during the session.

Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. 0.0 per cent to Rs 300.1 in Wednesday's trade as of 02:05PM (IST). The stock hit a high price of Rs 302.2 and low of Rs 297.5 during the session.

RBZ Jewellers share price opened on NSE and BSE at ₹100 and went on to touch 5 per cent upper circuit of ₹105 within few minutes of their listing. However, on BSE, the newly listed jewellery stock first touched 5% lower circuit of ₹95 before rising to its intraday high of ₹104.99 apiece levels. According to stock market experts, RBZ Jewellers IPO was offered at higher valuations and hence it is expected to witness selling pressure on rise.

Also Read: 2023 in review: IPOs this year have broken records; 2024 will likely see even more IPOs, says Venkatraghavan of Equirus According to data from Trendlyne, 234 companies have raised funds from Indian markets so far in 2023, with a significant portion of 176 companies falling within the SME category. In comparison, CY22 witnessed 103 SMEs entering the market; the number was 52 in 2021, 31 in 2020, and 31 in 2019. Out of the 176 SME stocks listed this year, 62, or 35%, are trading with gains ranging between 100% and 1000%.

IT sector, which has seen a contraction in hiring amid global economic slowdown and funding winter, is likely to witness a positive turnaround with 8-10% increase in hiring in 2024, suggests a new report rom talent solution company NLB Services. Overall, the hiring in the IT sector is expected to surge by 12-15% in CY 2024, especially due to the surge in global capabilities centres (GCCs) and global economy settling down comparatively, according to the report.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. traded at Rs 126.45 on BSE at 01:45PM (IST) on Wednesday, down 1.21 per cent from previous close. The stock quoted a 52-week low price of Rs 72.35 and a high of Rs 128.95.

Ashish Garg, MD, Happy Forgings, says “exports have risen from around Rs 50 crore in FY21 to almost Rs 300 crore this financial year. It has grown almost 6x and it was 3.7% last year in H1 we have clocked almost 21% as direct exports. So, we will be closing at about 20% direct exports this year. And going forward, we are looking between 27% and 28% going forward in the next financial year.” Happy Forgings has seen substantial growth over the last few years. Could you help us understand in terms of what worked well for the company and what is the sustainable growth trend that you are expecting? Ashish Garg: The company is able to perform at a CAGR growth of almost 25% in terms of EBITDA. So, it is not just the three years performance, if you look at the performance for the last 10 years, it has been very stable and in terms of numbers, we are improving our EBITDA margins and EBITDA per tonne on quarter on quarter basis because of the machining content in the business. Today almost 85% of the revenues are coming from complete machine products, not only the forged products which is the highest amongst our listed peers and also the value addition in the industrial business and the exports picking up is helping us.

Rishi Kohli, CIO - Hedge Fund Strategies at InCred Alternative Investments, expects the next 2 years to be bullish and advises investors to be long on equities. However, one should get cautious as we head into elections, he said. “There is a lot of talk already that Nifty has over-stretched, etc.

Page Industries Ltd. traded 0.01 per cent up at Rs 37545.2 on Wednesday at around 01:39PM (IST), while the benchmark BSE Sensex advanced 232.35 points to 71569.15. As many as 111 shares changed hands on the counter with a total value of Rs 0.42 crore.

Jubilant Foodworks Ltd. slipped 0.21 per cent to Rs 569.05 in Wednesday's trade as of 01:19PM (IST). It hit a high of Rs 576.0 and low of Rs 566.5 during the session.

Nifty on Wednesday hit a fresh all-time peak of 21,602.50 with banks, auto and metal stocks leading the charge. Notwithstanding the recent upside, Axis Securities said it foresees Nifty to hit 23,000 by December 2024. For the new calendar year 2024, the brokerage firm has picked 9 stocks within the broader themes of manufacturing, PSU banks, NBFCs, IT services, and consumption. The nine stocks recommended by Axis are Pitti Engineering, Sansera Engineering, Archean Chemicals, Amber Enterprises, JK Lakshmi Cement, SBI, Manappuram Finance, Cyient, and Westlife Foodworld. «The fundamentals of Indian corporates have improved significantly and so has the profitability across the board. This can be seen in the cumulative and rolling net profit of the NSE 500 universe for the last 4 quarters (till Q2FY24), which crossed the Rs 12 lakh crore mark. Moreover, after a muted performance for several years, the ROE of the broader market is improving as well. The bolstered balance sheet strength of corporate India and the significantly enhanced health of the Indian banking system are additional positive factors,» Axis said. It sees Nifty earnings growing to post 14% CAGR growth over FY23-26. New year stock picks from Axis:

Delhi Police received a call about a 'blast' being heard near the Israel Embassy, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been roped in to investigate the incident. A team of NIA officials, along with the Delhi Special Cell and Dog Squad, reached the Israeli Embassy on Wednesday morning and initiated a probe into the alleged 'blast' call incident. Meanwhile, Delhi police have zeroed in on two 'suspects' after examining the CCTV footage of the area.

Marico Ltd. traded at Rs 531.7 on BSE at 01:24PM (IST) on Wednesday, up 0.44 per cent from previous close. The stock quoted a 52-week low price of Rs 462.95 and a high of Rs 595.0.

InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. traded at Rs 2930.15 on BSE at 01:29PM (IST) on Wednesday, up 0.31 per cent from previous close. The stock quoted a 52-week low price of Rs 1810.45 and a high of Rs 3006.9.