Stocks to Watch: Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro, Shriram Finance, M&M, Just Dial

Stocks to Watch Today: The markets have a lot of news flow to digest this morning other than the Q3 results. India’s retail inflation eased to a 12-month low in December, while IIP jumped to a 5-month high in November.

That apart, inflation in the US cooled to 6.5 per cent, thus raising hopes of a downshift on rates by the Federal Reserve. Following which, the US markets ended with modest gains up to 0.6 per cent

At 07:20 AM, the SGX Nifty January futures quoted at 17,948 as against the spot Nifty 50 close of 17,858 yesterday.

Meanwhile, following stocks are likely to be in focus in trades on Friday.

Infosys: The IT major reported strong Q3 numbers beating Street estimates on both net profit and revenue. The company’s net profit for Q3FY23 rose 13.4 per cent YoY to Rs 6,586 crore, and was up 9.4 per cent sequentially. Revenue grew 20.2 per cent YoY to Rs 38,318 crore.

Further, the company raised its revenue guidance for FY23 on the back of a strong deal pipeline. It it now expects revenue growth in the range of 16-16.5 per cent, as against the earlier projection of 15-16 per cent. READ MORE

HCL Technologies: The third-largest IT services firm in India reported a 18.8 per cent YoY growth in Q3 net at Rs 4,096 crore. However, the company lowered its higher-end revenue guidance for FY23 13.5 per cent to 14 per cent, down from the earlier 13.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent due to seasonal weakness expected in the Q4FY23. READ MORE

Wipro: IT major Wipro is expected to register revenue growth up to 3 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 23,497 crore in Q3FY23, in-line with the management's guidance set in the range of 0.5-2 per cent. READ MORE

Earnings Today: Wipro, Just Dial, L&T Finance Holdings, Aditya Birla Money, Choice International, Ganesh Housing Corporation, International Travel House and Rajnish Wellness to announce Q3 results on Friday.

Shriram Finance: Private equity firm Apax Partner is planning to sell its entire stake in Shriram Finance via block deals on Friday.

Paytm: Chinese conglomerate Alibaba has reportedly sold half its shareholding to the tune of 3.1 per cent in One97 Communications, in an indication of exiting the Indian market. However, Alibaba group firm Ant Financial has not diluted its stake in Paytm and continues to hold 25 per cent of the company. READ MORE

Lotus Chocolate: Reliance Retail Ventures has made an open offer to acquire up to 33.39 lakh shares, representing 26 per cent of the share capital of Lotus Chocolate for a consideration of Rs 115.50 per share. The total outgo is pegged at Rs 38.56 crore. The open offer period is February 21 to March 06, 2023.

Rail Vikas Nigam: The state-run received letter of award worth Rs 38.97 crore from Southern Railway.

Cement: Acceleration in demand, together with marginal price hikes of about 2-3 per cent by cement companies in the October-December quarter (third quarter, or Q3) of 2022-23, may not be enough to cushion the impact of high input costs on the bottom line, reveal Bloomberg consensus estimates for the quarter. READ MORE

Mahindra & Mahindra: The Indian auto major was named the fastest-growing brand in South Africa for the year 2022 as the company's local subsidiary set several records. According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) Mahindra SA increased its sales volume by a massive 78 per cent compared to 2021, the highest of all the vehicle brands that report their sales to NAAMSA.

Anand Rathi Wealth: The brokerage firm reported a 35 per cent YoY growth in Q3FY23 consolidated net at Rs 43.22 crore. Consolidated revenue was up 30.6 per cent YoY at Rs 138 crore.

Jewellery makers: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will add 43 more districts to mandate the jewellery hallmark standards. At present, hallmarking of jewellery items are mandatory in around 288 districts across India.

Stocks in F&O ban: GNFC and Indiabulls Housing Finance remain the two stocks in F&O ban period on Friday.