Stocks To Watch: ABFRL, Infosys, RIL, Airtel, Vi, Sanofi, HAL, Aurobindo Pharma

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail: ABFRL is contemplating a vertical split of its Madura Fashion & Lifestyle division into an independent publicly traded entity, as stated in a stock exchange filing on Monday. This proposed split is expected to result in two separate publicly traded companies, each functioning as an independent growth platform with unique capital structures and concurrent opportunities for value creation, ABFRL said. In a recent meeting, the board of ABFRL gave the company's management the go-ahead to assess the feasibility of a vertical split of the Madura Fashion & Lifestyle division from ABFRL into a separate publicly traded company, the statement revealed.

Infosys: The IT company announced on Monday that it has received a tax demand of ₹341 crore for the assessment year 2020-21 from the Income Tax department, on March 31, 2024. Infosys said it is examining the impact of this order on its financial statements for the quarter and fiscal year ending on March 31, 2024. The company is also considering the possibility of filing an appeal against this order.

Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea: Reliance Jio, the largest telecom company in India and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, saw an increase of 41.78 lakh mobile subscribers in January 2024, bringing its total mobile user base to 46.39 crore. Bharti Airtel, led by Sunil Mittal, also experienced growth, adding 7.52 lakh wireless subscribers and raising its total mobile count to 38.24 crore during the same period. Conversely, Vodafone Idea experienced a loss of 15.2 lakh wireless users, resulting in a mobile subscriber base of 22.15 crore, according to TRAI data.

Sanofi India: Rodolfo Hrosz, managing director of Sanofi India, said in an interview with Mint that the company is focusing on India and has extensive plans to further strengthen its presence in this crucial region. In line with its strategy, Sanofi will launch new products, including Soliqua, a pre-mix insulin drug, and Xenpozyme, a treatment for late-onset pompe disease. The company's pipeline also includes other new drugs such as Dupixent for adult eczema, the respiratory-virus drug Beyfortus, and Mexiviazyme, as per a company statement. Furthermore, Sanofi aims to enhance access to its existing portfolio in India, which comprises drugs like Lantus, Clexane, Targocid, Allegra, Enterogermina, Combiflam Cardace, Cerezyme, and others.

Hindustan Aeronautics: HAL announced on Monday that it has achieved a revenue from operations exceeding ₹29,810 crore (provisional and unaudited) for the fiscal year 2023-24, marking an approximate growth of 11 per cent, compared to the 9 per cent growth in the previous fiscal year. The revenue for the preceding year was ₹26,928 crore, as stated by the defence PSU headquartered in Bengaluru. C B Ananthakrishnan, the chairman and managing director (Additional Charge) of HAL, said that as of March 31, 2024, the company's order book is valued at over ₹94,000 crore, with expectations of additional significant orders in the fiscal year 2024-25. During the fiscal year 2023-24, HAL secured new manufacturing contracts worth over ₹19,000 crore and Repair and Overhaul (ROH) contracts exceeding ₹16,000 crore.

Aurobindo Pharma: The company announced on Monday that it has inaugurated four cutting-edge manufacturing facilities for Penicillin-G, 6-Amino Penicillanic Acid (6-APA), Injectable products, and Granulation, all of which are managed by its fully owned subsidiaries. The Penicillin-G (Pen-G) facility, valued at ₹2,400 crore and situated in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, boasts an annual production capacity of 15,000 tonnes and an additional 1.8 lakh tonnes of glucose. The 6-Amino Penicillanic Acid plant, on the other hand, can produce 3,600 tonnes annually, as per the company's press release. The Pen-G plant is slated to commence trial production in April, with commercial production expected to follow in a few months. The production ramp-up is anticipated to occur during the second quarter of the current fiscal year.

NTPC: On Monday, the state-owned power company announced that it has augmented its power generation capacity by 3,924 MW in the fiscal year 2023-24, thereby raising the total installed capacity to approximately 76GW. This increase includes the inauguration of the second unit in Bangladesh and the first-ever capacity addition by its subsidiaries, NTPC Green Energy Ltd (NGEL) and NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (NREL), during the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2024, as per a company statement.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals: The company announced on Monday that it has received provisional approval for its generic Ribociclib tablets, which are used in breast cancer treatment, in the quarter ending March. The US Food & Drug Administration has granted tentative approval for Ribociclib tablets with a potency of 200 mg, as stated in a regulatory filing by Alembic. This medication is prescribed for the treatment of a specific type of advanced or metastatic breast cancer in adult patients, typically in conjunction with other drug therapies. The filing further added that these tablets are the generic counterpart of Novartis' Kisqali tablets.

South Indian Bank: On Monday, April 1, the South Indian Bank released its fourth-quarter business update, revealing that the bank's gross advances rose to ₹80,337 crore, up from ₹77,786 crore in the previous quarter. The bank also saw an increase in total deposits, which reached ₹1.02 lakh crore, compared to ₹99,155 crore in the previous quarter. The bank's Current Account Savings Account (CASA) demonstrated a positive trend, with an 8% increase to ₹32,654 crore from ₹31,529 crore in the previous quarter. The bank added a note stating that the above data is provisional and subject to an audit by the bank's statutory auditors.

AU Small Finance Bank: On Monday, AU Small Finance Bank (AU SFB) successfully merged Fincare Small Finance Bank (Fincare SFB) into itself, marking the first such consolidation in the sector. This all-stock merger, initially announced on October 29, 2023, saw Fincare SFB shareholders receive 579 AU SFB equity shares for every 2,000 they held in Fincare SFB. The Reserve Bank of India gave its final approval on March 4, 2024, and the merger took effect on April 1, 2024. The merger is anticipated to broaden AU SFB's reach into South India, significantly enlarging its distribution network, according to a statement from the Jaipur-based bank.