Stocks to Watch: LIC, Reliance, Nykaa, Nestle India, ITC, Hindalco

Here are the top 10 stocks that could be in focus in today's trade:

Life Insurance Corporation: Largest life insurer in India, LIC posted impressive growth in the bottom line for the fourth quarter of FY23. Consolidated Q4 FY23 PAT stood at ₹13,190.79 crore, rising by a breathtaking 447.47% or 5.5 folds year-on-year. In the previous fiscal Q4, the PAT stood merely at ₹2,409.39 crore. Sequentially, the growth was 107.77% in Q4 PAT. In December 2023 quarter, the PAT stood at ₹6,348.71 crore. On the top-line front, consolidated net premium income stood at ₹1,32,223.21 crore in Q4FY23, tumbled by 8.27% from ₹1,44,158.84 crore in Q4 of the previous fiscal

Reliance Industries: Reliance Industries Ltd is rolling out a cost-efficiency drive across its units Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio Infocomm, reducing hiring, reviewing compensation benchmarks, and firing underperformers, multiple executives from the company and the wider industry said. The retail business wants to eliminate the duplication of roles that followed its recent acquisitions, while in telecom, most of its 5G network rollout is complete, the people said, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.

FSN E-Commerce Ventures: E-retail giant, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which runs retail stores under the name Nykaa, on Wednesday reported a 71.8% decline in net profit to ₹2.4 crore for the quarter ended March 2023. This is against a net profit o ₹9 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The online beauty platform's revenue from operations rose by 33.7% to ₹1,301.7 crore in the quarter under review from ₹973.3 crore in the year-ago period. Nykaa's EBITDA shot up 84% to ₹70.6 crore during the quarter ended March 2023, from ₹38.4 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Nestle India/ITC: Food giants Nestle India Ltd and ITC Ltd have emerged as the finalists in the race for leading ingredient maker Capital Foods Pvt. Ltd, two people aware of the matter said. A deal may value the maker of Ching’s Secret and Smith & Jones food ingredients between ₹4,000 crore and ₹5,000 crore, they said. “Nestle’s bid is the highest. ITC’s bid is very close to that," one of the two people said on condition of anonymity. For several months, Swiss multinational Nestle SA, the world’s largest food company, has been in talks with Mumbai-based Capital Foods, which makes popular Chinese food ingredients.

Hindalco: Hindalco on Wednesday reported a 37% year-on-year decline in consolidated net profit to ₹2,411 crore during the January-March quarter compared to ₹3,851 crore net profit in the year-ago quarter. The net profit, however, was better than consensus analyst estimates of ₹2,046 crore as indicated by Bloomberg. The year-on-year decline in net profit is attributed to the significant fall in base metal prices compared to the year-ago quarter while inflationary pressure, though easing, remains higher than last year.

HDFC Asset Management: HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) on May 24 announced that it had received the final approval from capital market regulator SEBI for a change in control due to the HDFC-HDFC Bank merger. This is subject to compliance with the applicable provisions of PMS regulations, and circulars thereto, according to a regulatory filing by HDFC AMC to the stock exchanges. This approval will help pave the way for the merger of HDFC into HDFC Bank, expected to be finalised by the third quarter of the next financial year.

Nalco: The National Aluminum Company Ltd (NALCO) announced its Q4FY23 results on May 24, reporting a net profit of ₹459 crore, registering a decline of 51.7%, compared to ₹1025.46 crore in the corresponding period last year. The Navratna central public sector enterprise or CPSE's revenue from operations in the January-March quarter stood at ₹3,670.9 crore, posting a drop of 15.6%, compared to ₹4,340 crore in the year-ago period. On the operating front, the EBITDA for the fourth quarter came in at ₹766.5 crore, registering a decline of 52.9%.

NHPC: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) cut its holding in NHPC to 3.19% in the March quarter from 3.48% in the preceding quarter. LIC stated in its official report that it sold shares worth ₹832.8 crore between October 18, 2022, and May 23, 2023. According to the report, LIC sold 202.6 million shares of NHPC at an average price of ₹41.10 each during the period from October 18, 2022, to May 23, 2023. This reduction means LIC's ownership has gone down from 5.203% in October to 3.19%, as reported by LIC in a regulatory filing.

Oil India: State-owned Oil India posted a nearly 9.70% jump year-on-year in standalone net profit to ₹1788.28 crore for the fourth quarter of FY23 as compared to ₹1630.01 crore a year-ago period. The oil explorer also witnessed double-digit growth in revenue driven by the natural gas business. However, sequentially, the company's quarterly performance was weak. Oil India also declared a final dividend for FY23. Compared to December 2023 quarter where PAT stood at ₹1,746.10 crore, Oil India posted a growth of 2.4% in Q4FY23.

Vikas Lifecare: The Agro Products Division has received new orders of INR 155 Million to be carried out in the second quarter of 2023–2024. Before receiving this new order, Vikas Lifecare Limited's Agro Products Division had generated INR 480 million in sales. The company has set a target of INR 3600 million for the Agro Products Division for the current fiscal year, up from the INR 2000 million achieved in the previous fiscal. The Agro Products division of Vikas Lifecare Limited is going to expand, and it also plans to pursue export operations.