Stocks to Watch: SBI, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, IDBI Bank

NEW DELHI: Here are the top 10 stocks that could be in focus on Wednesday:

State Bank of India: India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday raised deposit rates by 15-20 basis points (bps) across three maturity buckets. The hike comes after two back-to-back repo rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in May and June to rein in runaway inflation. SBI last hiked deposit rates in February.

Bharti Airtel: Has launched Xstream multiplex, a 20-screen platform with access to content portfolios from leading over-the-top (OTT) partners available on its Xstream app. Users will be able access the multiplex service on a metaverse platform called Partynite Metaverse. Separately, Fitch Ratings has revised the outlook on Bharti Airtel’s long-term foreign-currency (FC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to `Stable' from `Negative,' and affirmed the FC-IDR and senior unsecured bond rating at 'BBB-'. 

NTPC: The state-owned utility firm will begin commercial operations of its 15 MW solar capacity at Kawas Solar Project in Gujarat. The capacity is part of the 56 MW Kawas Solar Project located in Kawas near Surat.

Asian Paints: The paint company has acquired a 51% stake in Weatherseal Fenestration for ₹18.84 crore, making it a subsidiary of the company.

IDBI Bank: Has raised interest rates by up to 25 basis points (bps) on retail term deposits of less than ₹2 crore. The revised rates would be applicable across various tenors for domestic term deposits, non-resident ordinary (NRO) and non-resident external (NRE) term deposits, effective 15 June.

Ashok Leyland: Commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland’s electric mobility arm, Switch Mobility, expects an orderbook pipeline of 1,000 electric buses by the end of this financial year, feeding the significant demand boom for electric buses for public transit that India is witnessing. The company is also aiming to launch its electrified range of light commercial vehicles within this fiscal.

PNB Housing Finance: Will raise up to ₹2,000 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis. The housing finance company, promoted by the city-headquartered Punjab National Bank, was looking to raise equity capital worth ₹4,000 crore and struck a deal with joint-venture partner Carlyle Group, among other investors. However, the deal fell through following regulatory and legal challenges.

Sterlite Technologies: The maker of fibre optic cables and other telecom gear expects to increase sales by as much as 25% to ₹7,000 crore this fiscal, helped by ₹11,000 crore worth of orders including those from Europe and the US. The company is also building open-RAN, or O-RAN, solutions, to help telecom service providers deploy 5G networks.

Life Insurance Corp: Has raised its stake in Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Hero MotoCorp and non-banking finance company Capri Global Capital through open market purchases over the last few months. LIC's stake in Hero MotoCorp has increased to 11.25% from 9.16% of the paid-up capital of the company.

GR Infraprojects: Subsidiary GR Bandikui Jaipur Expressway Private Ltd. has executed a concession agreement with the National Highways Authority of India. The project worth ₹1,368 crore includes construction of a 4-lane greenfield expressway spur from Delhi-Vadodara Greenfield expressway near Bandikui to Jaipur in Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1 in Rajasthan on hybrid annuity mode.