Benchmark indices ended lower amid selling pressure in It and Banking sectors; It giants Infosys and Wipro dropped down despite good quarterly results

 
STOCKS TODAY

Reliance Industries: Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd. surged nearly 3 percent after several brokerages reaffirmed their ratings while raising their target prices following the firm’s strong performance across segments in Q3. The firm reported its consolidated net profit at Rs 18,540 crore for the third quarter.

Fertilisers And Chemicals Travancore: Fertilisers And Chemicals Travancore and other chemical stocks skyrocketed up to nine percent as the price of soda ash jumped. Rising soda ash prices drive chemical stocks higher due to its critical role as a raw material in industries like glass, detergents, and chemicals. When soda ash prices increase, it often boosts revenue and profit margins for soda ash producers, lifting their stock prices.

Indus Towers: Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA added telecom player Indus Towers Ltd. to its ‘high conviction’ list, indicating increased bullishness on the counter. The brokerage upgraded the counter to a ‘high conviction’ outperform, with a target price of Rs 575 per share, which implies a whopping 62 percent upside from the previous session’s closing price.

RVNL: RVNL share price jumped as much as 5 percent on Friday, extending the previous day’s 11 percent gain, on the expectation of a favorable Union Budget allocation, even as other railway stocks pared morning gains. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd stock was trading at around Rs 430 on January 17. Shares of railway stocks have seen heightened activity in the last few days amid expectations of significant capex increment announcements in the upcoming Union Budget 2025-2026, scheduled to be tabled on February 1.

Infosys: Shares of Infosys slumped 6 percent in trade. While the information technology major’s October-December earnings had beaten market estimates, its revised revenue growth guidance, hinting towards a weaker Q4 may have triggered the fall. Infosys saw strong deal wins in Q3, prompting the management to revise its FY25 revenue growth guidance to 4.5-5 percent in constant currency terms. However, analysts flagged that while FY25 revenue guidance was raised to reflect the Q3 beat, the unchanged ask rate for Q4 signals potential seasonal weakness.

Axis Bank: Private lender Axis Bank Ltd.’s earnings for the October-December 2024 period saw higher slippages and lagging deposit growth, leading to brokerages slashing their target price on the bank’s stock. Axis Bank reported a 3.8 percent rise in its net profit to Rs 6,304 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year 2024-25. On a sequential basis, the net profit of the lender declined 9 percent.