Stocks to Watch: Axis Bank, Brightcom, Cipla, Federal Bank, Pidilite, IT

BHEL, Birlasoft, Canara Bank, Fino Payments Banks, LIC Housing Finance, MayMyIndia, McDowell Holdings, PNB, RBL Bank and Wockhardt to announce results today.

The key benchmark indices are likely to start trade on a disappointing note as the US Federal reaffirmed its stance to tightening the money supply from March onwards, but starting with rate hikes and ending bond purchases. As of 08:20 AM, the SGX Nifty February futures quoted at 16,950, indicating a likely gap-down of more than 200 points on the Nifty 50 benchmark.

Meanwhile, here are the top stocks in focus for trade on Thursday.

Earnings Watch: AIA Engineering, Arvind, Aurion Pro, BHEL, Birlasoft, Canara Bank, CG Power, Chalet Hotels, CoForge, Colgate Palmolive, Dalmia Bharat, Filatex India, Fino Payments Bank, GHCL, GMDC, HSIL, Kei Industries, Laurus Labs, LIC Housing Finance, MayMyIndia, McDowell Holdings, Mold Tek Packaging, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, PNB, Punjab Chemicals, Rane Brake Lining, RBL Bank, Route Mobile, Subros, Transport Corporation of India (TCI), Vaibhav Global, Wabco India and Wockhardt are some of the companies to announce December quarter results today.

TCS, Infosys: The two leading Indian IT firms have pushed IBM to fourth spot from second in terms of global brand value. TCS is now the second most valued brand in the services sector globally, behind Accenture; while Infosys emerged as the fastest growing IT services brand following 52 per cent growth since last year, earning it the third spot. READ MORE

Axis Bank: The Standard and Poor's (S&P) revised its outlook on Axis Bank from "stable" to "positive", citing improved asset quality of the privately owned lender. The rating agency affirmed 'BB+' long-term and 'B' short-term issuer credit ratings on the bank under revised criteria. READ MORE

Brightcom Group: The company reported a solid 168 per cent YoY jump in Q3 net profit at Rs 371.45 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021 as against Rs 138.60 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income also soared 129.9 per cent YoY to Rs 2,021.29 crore. The company’s board further recommended a bonus issue in 2:3 ratio; i.e. two free shares for every three shares held by the shareholders as per the record date.

Macrotech Developers: Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO of the company said, he saw a "minor" impact on housing demand in the first two weeks of January this year due to surge in COVID cases and remains confident of meeting the Rs 9,000-crore sales bookings target for this fiscal. He added that the company had increased prices by an average 4-5 per cent so far this fiscal. READ MORE

JSW Steel: The steel producer has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore to decarbonise including by shifting to solar power for energy and using more scrap, according to Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director at the Mumbai-based mill. It’s also in talks with the GAIL India for the supply of natural gas to its biggest mill, he added. READ MORE

Cipla: The drug major reported a 2.6 per cent YoY decline in its consolidated profit at Rs 729 crore for the third quarter ended on December 31, 2021. Total revenue, however, rose by 6 per cent YoY to Rs 5,479 crore.

Torrent Pharmaceuticals: The company’s Q3 consolidated net profit declined by 16 per cent YoY to Rs 249 crore for the quarter ended December 2021 on account of muted performance in the US market. Total revenue, however, was up 5.7 per cent YoY from Rs 1,995 crore to Rs 2,108 crore.

United Spirits: The liquor maker reported a 26.62 per cent YoY increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 291.1 crore for Q3FY22. Total revenue grew 7.6 per cent YoY to Rs 8,854.5 crore.

Pidilite Industries: The company reported a 19.5 per cent YoY decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 359.24 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021. Revenue, however, grew 24 per cent YoY to Rs 2,850.72 crore.

Federal Bank: The private sector lender’s net profit rose 29 per cent YoY to Rs 522 crore in the third quarter ended December 2021 on sharp reduction in provisions and marginal improvement in net interest margin. Net interest income (NII) was up 7 per cent YoY at Rs 1,539 crore.

Pfizer: Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said, had started a clinical trial to test a new version of their vaccine specifically designed to target the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which has eluded some of the protection provided by the original two-dose vaccine regimen.