Sensex Trades in Green, Bank Stocks in Focus, and Top Stocks in Action

Mon, 15 Apr Pre-Open | Monish Vora, TM Team

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On Friday, the Indian share markets settled in the positive territory helped by buying in bluechips such as ITC, Maruti, ICICI Bank and Infosys.

The BSE Sensex recovered 212 points from day's low to settle at 38,767, up 160 points. ITC emerged as the top gainer on the index with over 3% gains while Tata Motors ended as the biggest loser.

The Nifty50 index settled at 11,643, up 47 points. On a weekly basis, both, Nifty and Sensex lost 0.2%.

Among BSE sectoral indices, realty stocks fell the most by 2.3%, followed by energy stocks at 1.7%. Yes Bank and Bajaj Finance were among the top losers.

Top Stocks in Action Today

Bank stocks will be in focus today after major lenders including SBI, IDBI Bank, and other state-run banks have reduced their lending rates by 5 basis points for most of the tenors.

Banks have started reducing MCLR following a 25-basis point after repo rate cut by the Reserve Bank in its first bi- monthly monetary policy review announced on 4 April.

Cipla share price is likely to be in focus as the company launched Niveoli - a proprietary Cipla inhaler, and the latest offering from the company in respiratory inhalation therapy that addresses an unmet need associated with obstructive airway diseases (OAD) such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).

Infosys and TCS share prices will likely be in focus today after the IT majors reported their quarterly earnings on Friday.

Jet Airways Back in Focus

Jet Airways share price is witnessing interest after media reports stated that Etihad Airways has submitted an expression of interest (EoI) to buy a stake in the debt-laden airline.

Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways currently holds 24% stake in Jet Airways. Struggling with a mounting debt of more than Rs 85 billion, Jet on Thursday cancelled all international operations along with several domestic flights.

Sources also said that Jet's founder Naresh Goyal, who was forced to step down as chairman recently, may submit an EoI to regain control of the airline he had started more than 25 years ago.

While Goyal may not have the funds required to qualify for the pre-bid process, the EoI guidelines allow those with minimum three years' experience in civil aviation to participate.

The qualification criteria require strategic investors to have minimum net worth of Rs 10 billion in the preceding financial year. Goyal, who has pledged 41.1% of his 51% stake in the airline, has been in touch with potential investors including some sovereign wealth funds.

Lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) have invited EoIs from potential bidders for buying a controlling stake of up to 75%.

A senior executive of a public-sector bank said the country's first sovereign wealth fund National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF), as well as private equity firms TPG Capital and Indigo Partners, had expressed an interest in buying a stake in the troubled airline.

Jet was expecting emergency funding of at least Rs 15 billion to be released by the lenders to meet its operational requirements after Goyal pledged his shares.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.

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