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Eveready Industries Takeover Bid, February GST Collections, and Buzzing Stocks Today
Wed, 2 Mar Pre-Open

Indian share markets ended on a positive note on Monday.

Benchmark indices defied the weak global market trend and turned sharply higher in the afternoon session as Russia and Ukraine began talks at Belarus border.

At the closing bell on Monday, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 389 points (up 0.7%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 135 points (up 0.8%).

Hindalco and Tata Steel were among the top gainers.

HDFC Life Insurance and Dr Reddy's Lab, on the other hand, were among the top losers.

Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.8%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the metal sector, oil & gas sector and energy sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

Auto and banking stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of Fine Organic Industries and Narayana Hrudayalaya hit their respective 52-week highs.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX were trading up by 0.9% at Rs 50,666 per 10 grams at the time of closing stock market hours on Monday.

Speaking of stock markets, India's #1 trader Vijay Bhambwani talks about Nifty ETFs and why it's his top investing idea amid correction in the markets, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

Tune in to the video below to find out more:

Top Stocks in Focus Today

Among the buzzing stocks today will be Biocon Biologics.

Biocon Biologics (BBL) will acquire biosimilars business of Viatris Inc. to create a fully integrated global biosimilars enterprise, the biopharmaceutical major said.

The company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Viatris where the latter will receive consideration of up to US$3.3 bn, including cash up to US$2.3 bn and Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) in BBL, valued at US$1 bn.

BBL will have a comprehensive portfolio comprising its current range of commercialised insulins, oncology and immunology biosimilars as well as several other biosimilar assets currently under development.

BBL also has access to the vaccines portfolio through its previously announced partnership with Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS).

INOX Leisure share price will also be in focus today.

Movie theatre chain Inox Leisure on Monday announced its partnership with Esports Federation of India (ESFI) for a community viewing experience for fans of esports tournaments on big screens.

The company said this will help take the game to a wider audience by letting people not only play tournaments through the year at select cinema venues but also for fans to come and watch the tournaments at their cinemas.

The multiplex operator said it had been supporting Indian sports through collaborations in the past, including its longstanding partnership with the Indian Olympic Association.

The theatre chain has also screened and marketed other sporting tournaments like the ICC World Cup, and Olympics 2020.

Eveready Industries Takeover

In its bid to take full management control of city-based dry cell battery major Eveready Industries India, the Burmans of the Dabur family on Monday made an open offer for an additional 26% of shares at Rs 320 per scrip.

The mandatory open offer under the takeover regulations of market regulator was made as the Burmans acquired an additional 5.26% stake of Eveready from the open market taking its total shareholding to 25.11%.

Mohit Burman who personally handles the family investment in Eveready said they have been monitoring the situation of the company and felt that it is the appropriate time to step in.

Eveready had been under the control of the BM Khaitan group for two decades. The company came under the Khaitan fold in 1993 when it acquired Union Carbide India.

Its shareholding plunged to just 4.8% from 44.1% over the past two years as the promoter group defaulted on repayments and lenders sold shares of Eveready pledged with them against borrowings.

Honda to Install Battery Swapping Stations at HPCL Retail Outlets

Honda Power Pack Energy India and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) signed a memorandum of understanding and commercial agreement to collaborate in the field of e-mobility and provide battery sharing services in HPCL's retail outlets in major cities across India.

This marks the global debut of Honda's battery sharing service.

In October 2021, Honda Motor Japan has announced its plan to begin battery sharing service in India starting with electric 3 wheelers through its newly established subsidiary, Honda Power Pack Energy India.

Honda's battery sharing service will enable rickshaw drivers to stop by at the nearest battery swapping stations being setup across the selected cities and swap discharged batteries (Honda Mobile Power Pack) with fully charged ones.

Honda plans to start its battery as a Service (BaaS) business on commercial basis from Bengaluru city in the first half of 2022. Honda will set up strong network of battery swap stations at strategic locations like HPCL's retail outlets.

GST Collections Decline in Feb

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for February declined to Rs 1.33 lakh crore, down 5.6% from the first month of 2022, data released on 1 March by the finance ministry showed.

Of the total, Central GST was Rs 244.4 bn, state GST was Rs 307.8 bn, integrated GST was Rs 674.7 bn, and compensation cess was Rs 103.4 bn.

The revenue stayed above the Rs 1.30 lakh crore mark despite the Omicron-led curbs in the month of February, which also is a shorter 28-day month, the Finance Ministry said.

Airtel Shareholders Approve Google Investment

Bharti Airtel shareholders have approved the issue of preferential shares to Google for its about Rs 75 bn investment in the company to buy 1.3% stake.

A special resolution to approve Google's investment was approved by over 99% of the shareholders, according to the voting result of an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) filed by Airtel on Sunday.

The EGM of the company was held on 26 February 2022.

Internet giant Google last month announced investments worth US$ 1 bn or about Rs 75 bn in Bharti Airtel.

Google made the investment as part of its Google for India Digitization Fund.

The investment comprises US$ 700 m equity investment in Bharti Airtel at a price per share of Rs 734 and US$ 300 m will go towards implementing commercial agreements, which will include investments in scaling Airtel's offerings.

Bharti Airtel's proposal to spend Rs 1.8 tn in business transactions with subsidiaries - Indus Towers, Nxtra and Bharti Hexacom - was also approved by the majority of the shareholders.

According to the EGM's agenda, Bharti Airtel has plans to invest Rs 880 bn in business with mobile tower company Indus Towers, Rs 150 bn for availing the services of datacentre firm Nxtra and transaction of up to Rs 140 bn with Bharti Hexacom.

Bharti Airtel will invest up to Rs 170 bn on transactions with Indus Towers in the next four financial years and Rs 200 bn in 2025-26. The company had cited 5G developments globally and in India as main reasons to invest heavily in the telecom infrastructure firm.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

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