Lacklustre day on the cards

Indian stock markets are likely to remain listless on Wednesday too ahead of the crucial US Fed meet. The SGX NIfty indicates that the Nifty may hover around 15,000. Asian markets are trading with mixed bag while overnight, the US benchmarks Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed in the red even as Nasdaq ended flat but positive.

According to analysts, the market is awaiting clear signals from the US Fed, which will conclude its two-day meet on Wednesday. While global investors expect a status quo in key policy rate, they will closely track the economic outlook and the path for interest rates from the Fed Chairman.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "Indian market is impacted due to rising crude prices and selling by both FIIs & DIIs. We can expect FII selling to calm down post the Fed policy meet and ease in US bond yield, as an accommodative outlook is expected.

"The domestic sentiment is suppressed by rising covid-19 cases increasing the risk of a second wave and fall in macro data like production & rise in inflation," he added.

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities, said: "The short-term trend of Nifty is choppy and the market is struggling to sustain the intraday gains. One may expect similar sideways movement with lower levels recovery for the next session. The overall chart pattern of intraday-60 min/daily timeframe signal a chance of an upside bounce from here or from the lows in the short term. Immediate resistance is placed at 15050".

Stocks to Watch

Vedanta : Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources Plc on Tuesday raised the open offer price for buying shares in its flagship Indian firm to ₹235 a share, nearly 4 per cent higher than the current trading price. The company plans to mop up 65.10 crore shares through the open offer. In January, Vedanta Resources had offered to buy up to 10 per cent in Vedanta Ltd at ₹160 apiece. The offer opens March 23 and closes on April 7. If the open offer turns successful ,then the total promoter stake will go up from 55 per cent to about to 73 per cent.

SBI Cards : Private equity firm Carlyle has launched a block deal to sell around 4 per cent stake in SBI Cards & Payment Services and raise around $513 million, according to a Moneycontrol report. The offer price range is ₹ 981.80-1,022.10 a share (the upper end reflecting a 3.94 per cent discount to the closing price of ₹1,022.1 on 16th March), as per the term sheet, it further said. Carlyle held 15.86 per cent stake in SBI Cards.

Kabra Extrusion Technik : The management of the company has agreed to withdraw the application of voluntary delisting of the equity shares. Earlier, the company had proposed to delist its equity shares voluntarily from the BSE Limited to save recurring expenditure on the listing fees payable to the Sensex operator. However, the company did not intend to delist from the NSE.

IPO Corner

Today is the last day for the Laxmi Organic Industries' ₹600-crore IPO. The public issue has been subscribed over six times so far. It received bids of 19.69 crore shares against the offered 3.255 crore shares. The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed 10.38 times. While the Qualified Institutional Buyer category was subscribed 1.15 times, the Non-Institutional Investor category was subscribed 2.48 times. The offer consists of a fresh issuance of equity shares aggregating up to ₹300 crore and an Offer for sale of equity shares aggregating up to ₹300 cr. The price band has been fixed at ₹129 – ₹130 per Equity Share.

Craftsman Automation : The IPO will close today. The issue has so far been subscribed by 1.26 times. The price band of the IPO, which ends on Thursday, is ₹1,488- ₹1,490. The company plans to raise funds worth ₹823.70 crore from the issue, which consists of a fresh issue of ₹150 crore and the remaining will be an offer for sale. The issue will close on Wednedsay.

Kalyan Jewellers Ltd's initial public offering was subscribed 0.60 times on the first day. The IPO, which will end on March 18, has received bids for 5.722 crore shares as against the 9.571 crore shares on offer. The retail investor portion was subscribed 1.12 times while the qualified institutional buyer portion and non-institutional investor portions received a lukewarm response. The company plans to raise up to ₹800 crore through a fresh issue and ₹375 crore through an offer-for-sale by the promoters and existing investor Warburg Pincus.

Nazara Technologies : The ₹583-crore IPO opens for subscription today and will end on Friday. Nazara's public issue is offer-for-sale, which will see sale of 52,94,392 equity shares by the promoters and existing shareholders. The sellers are Mitter Infotech LLP, a promoter of the company, IIFL Special Opportunities Fund, Good Game Investment Trust, IndexArb Securities and Azimuth Investments. Ahead of the IPO, the gaming firm on Tuesday mopped up ₹261 crore from anchor investors at ₹1,101 apiece, the upper end of the price band ₹1,100-1,101.

Suryoday Small Finance Bank (SSFB): The IPO opens for subscription on March 17 and closes on March 19. The price band of the Offer has been fixed at ₹303 to ₹305 per equity share. On Tuesday, SSFB raised ₹170 crore through by allotting shares to 13 anchor investors at ₹305 a share.

GMM Pfaudler Limited has emerged as a successful bidder to acquire the assets of HDO Technologies Ltd in liquidation process. The technology process solutions provider will acquire the assets including land, building, plant and machinery among others for a consideration of ₹58.46 crore. The acquisition will enhance capacity and augment the capabilities in heavy engineering for GMM Pfaulder. HDO Technologies Limited's manufacturing facility is spread across 11.9 acres in Vatva, Ahmedabad.

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