Stocks to Watch: Adani Ports, TechM, Infosys, Airtel, ONGC, UPL

Adani Ports: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) posted a 33% year-on-year rise in revenue to ₹5211 crore in Q2FY23 while EBITDA rose to 31% to ₹3260 crore . PAT jumped 65% to ₹1738 crore from the same period of FY22. Quarterly cargo volume jumped 15% on year to 86.6 mn tonnes. For H1 FY23, record cargo volumes have resulted in a 24% Y-o-Y jump in Port EBITDA, while the EBITDA of the logistics business jumped 57% Y-o-Y.

Infosys: Infosys will seek shareholders’ nod for its proposed ₹9,300 crore share buyback between November 3 to December 2 through postal ballot, the company said in a regulatory filing. The Infosys board on October 13 had announced a share buyback of ₹9,300 crore via the open market route, for a price not exceeding ₹1,850 per equity share.

ONGC/Reliance: The Central government has reduced the windfall tax on crude oil to ₹9,500 a tonne from ₹11,000, showed an official notification. The change is effective from 2 November, a government notification showed. The reduction in the tax is over 13%. The windfall tax levied as special additional excise duty is aimed at absorbing the super-profits earned by domestic crude oil producers and is revised every fortnight.

Tech Mahindra: Country’s fifth largest IT services exporter Tech Mahindra on Tuesday reported a 4% year-on-year decline in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) to ₹1,285.4 crore in the second quarter of FY23 (July-September), as higher expenses offset the rise in revenue. The firm had posted a profit of ₹1,338.7 crore in the year-ago period. On a sequential basis, the IT services exporter’s PAT rose 13.6% from ₹1,131.6 crore in the April to June quarter.

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel Ltd will keep 5G and 4G tariffs at the same levels for another six to nine months, after which it may decide on fixing 5G tariffs separately, chief executive officer Gopal Vittal said. In a call with investors after the company’s second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Vittal, however, reiterated the need for existing tariff levels to rise. Countries like the US, Thailand and South Korea that had priced 5G differently from 4G saw very little uptake of 5G services, says Airtel CEO.

UPL: UPL on Tuesday said its consolidated net profit rose 25.19 per cent to ₹969 crore in the second quarter of FY23 on strong sales, and also announced that founder Rajju Shroff has stepped down as CMD. The agrochemical company had posted a consolidated net profit of ₹774 crore during the second quarter previous year. “Due to ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and the sanctions in the region, the Group’s business has been impacted to some extent,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

Macrotech Developers: Realty firm Macrotech Developers Ltd on Tuesday reported a consolidated net loss of ₹933 crore for the quarter ended September due to provisions made for loans given to its British arm for the development of projects. Macrotech Developers markets its properties under the Lodha brand. Its net profit stood at ₹223.36 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.

LIC Housing Finance: The second largest pure-play mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance on Tuesday announced a 23 per cent on-year growth in net profit at ₹305 crore for the three months period ending September. The subsidiary of the country’s largest insurer LIC said its net interest income for the quarter declined marginally (80 basis points) to ₹1,163 crore from ₹1,173 crore, but the management did not give any reason for the same.

Hero MotoCorp: The country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp on Tuesday reported a 17 per cent dip in its total sales at 4,54,582 units last month as compared with 5,47,970 units in October 2021. In the domestic market, the company’s dispatches to dealers stood at 4,42,825 units, down 16 per cent units in the year-ago period. “With festivals of Dussehra and Diwali — which triggers record retail buying — occurring in the month of October this year, the dispatch sales of October are not comparable to the previous years, when the festival days are usually spread across the months of October and November,” the two-wheeler major noted.

JK Tyre: JK Tyre & Industries on Tuesday said its consolidated net profit declined 23 per cent to ₹50 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2022. The tyre maker had reported a net profit of ₹65 crore in the July-September period of last fiscal. Total income, however, increased to ₹3,764 crore in the September quarter as against ₹2,998 crore in the year-ago period.