Indian equity indices closed in negative territory on 13th March, with the NIFTY falling below 22,400. The Sensex dropped 200.85 points (0.27%) to 73,828.91, while the NIFTY declined 73.30 points (0.33%) to 22,397.20. Despite encouraging indicators like moderating inflation and improved GDP (gross domestic product) numbers, investors remained cautious, amid late selling pressure. Mixed signals from European and Asian markets, combined with persistent foreign institutional investor (FII) selling, contributed to the downbeat sentiment. Market participants are particularly concerned about potential tariffs on Indian goods under the Trump administration and their broader economic impact. The trends of the major indices in the course of the week's trading are given in the table below:
News
Bharti Airtel’s total customer base increased to 385.3mn (million) with market share of 33.49% of wireless subscribers as on 31 December 2024. Following Bharti Airtel’s tie-up with Elon Musk’s satellite-based network, Starlink, Jio announced a similar tie-up on 12 March 2024.
IndusInd Bank reported discrepancies in its derivative portfolio. During internal review of processes relating to ‘Other Asset and Other Liability’ accounts of the derivative portfolio, post-implementation of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) master direction - classification, valuation and operation of investment portfolio of commercial banks (directions), 2023 issued in September 2023, including accounting of derivatives. The Bank noted some discrepancies in these account balances. The Bank's detailed internal review has estimated an adverse impact of around 2.35% of Bank’s net worth as of December 2024. We have covered it in detail
here.
Vascon Engineers launched of ‘Vascon Orchids’, a luxury residential project through a redevelopment initiative on Linking Road in Santacruz West (Mumbai). The project has a total expected gross development value (GDV) of Rs300 crore in saleable units. This acquisition aligns with the company's growth and diversification goals of expanding its presence in Mumbai.
Zydus Lifesciences (-0.79%) received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to manufacture Ketoconazole Shampoo, 2%, an antifungal medication used to treat dandruff, fungal infections and other skin conditions. Ketoconazole shampoo will be produced at the group’s topical manufacturing site at Changodar (Ahmedabad).
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc (Checkpoint) entered into an agreement by which Sun Pharma will acquire Checkpoint, an immunotherapy and targeted oncology company.
IntellectAI, the Insurtech business unit of Intellect Design Arena, entered into partnership with Across America Insurance Services to drive underwriting accuracy and efficiency with loss run extraction and analysis solutions.
Navin Fluorine International commenced commercial operations of the plant for manufacture of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) (R32) capacity of 4,500TPA (tonnes per annum) at Surat unit. The company has dispatched the first commercial lot to the customer.
European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) and the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) have concluded joint inspection at Nectar Lifesciences’ (-5.01%) API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) manufacturing facility at Mohali (Punjab). Following the inspection, seven observations including four critical, were noted.
E2E Cloud launched its sovereign cloud platform, an AI-powered cloud solution designed to give enterprises, governments and data centers full control over their digital infrastructure. The platform addresses growing concerns around data sovereignty, vendor lock-in and cloud technology sanctions, offering a secure and scalable alternative for organisations looking to build and manage their own cloud environments.
Zydus Lifesciences received final approval from the US FDA to manufacture methenamine hippurate tablets USP, 1 gram (USRLD: Hiprex Tablets, 1 gram). The group now has 419 approvals and had filed 483 ANDAs (abbreviated new drug application,) since the commencement of the filing process in FY03-04.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) extended its partnership with Coop Danmark to support the core business system of Denmark’s leading consumer good retailer. By managing Coop’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, TCS will enable efficient operations for the retailer and consistent shopping experiences for customers across 900+ stores.
Orders
VA Tech Wabag secured order worth around Rs340 crore towards design, build, operate (DBO) of a 450 m³/hr (cubic meters per hour) UF & RO -based effluent recycle plant, evaporator based zero liquid discharge (ZLD) plant and new waste water treatment plant & augmentation of existing waste water treatment plant, for GAIL's (India) integrated petrochemicals complex at Pata (Uttar Pradesh).
Ashoka Buildcon received letter of acceptance (LoA) from Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co (MSETCL) for the supply and civil portion for a 400/220KV sub-station at Nandgaon Peth (Amravati, Maharashtra).
Bharat Electronics (BEL) secured additional orders worth Rs843 crore which include radio frequency seekers, vessel and air traffic management system, electro optic repair facility, radar upgradation, spares, services, etc. With these, the total accumulated orders received by BEL during the current financial year stand at Rs14,567 crore.
Polycab India executed an agreement with BSNL as the project implementation agency (PIA) for design, supply, construction, installation, upgradation, operation & maintenance of middle mile network of Bharat Net in the Bihar telecom circle against package No.7 amounting Rs3,002.99 crore.
Investment/ Acquisition / Stake Stale
Satin Creditcare Network has successfully raised its first syndicated social term loan of US$100mn via external commercial borrowing (ECB) under the automatic route of RBI.
InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) received approval from board of directors for investment of up to Rs394 crore in one or more tranches, in equity shares of InterGlobe Aviation Financial Services IFSC (IndiGo IFSC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance company received approval for proposal to increase the limits of investment in its wholly-owned subsidiary, ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company (ICICIPFM), from Rs75 crore to Rs100 crore.
HPL Electric & Power has bagged orders worth Rs 369.90 crore from its regular leading customers for supply of smart meters in the normal course of business which is to be executed as per the terms & conditions of purchase order/supply agreement.
Supreme Industries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Wavin Industries for acquisition of its Indian piping business, at its manufacturing units situated at Banmore (MP), Hyderabad (Telangana) and Neemrana (Rajasthan) either on slump sale or share acquisition basis comprising all tangible fixed assets, tools, moulds & dies, spare parts, all intangible fixed assets including trademarks & intellectual property rights, all licences. approvals & permissions, contract for power & other utilities, all material contracts, orders, rate contracts in hand and employees.
Aditya Birla Capital (ABCL) invested Rs300 crore on rights basis, in the equity shares of Aditya Birla Housing Finance (ABHFL). Pursuant to these investments, there is no change in the percentage shareholding of ABCL and ABHFL continues to be wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.
Thermax’s wholly-owned subsidiary -- Thermax Chemical Solutions -- entered into an exclusive shareholder’s agreement with Oswaldo Cruz QuimicaIndustria E Comercio (OCQ) (Brazil), one of the leading chemical companies in Latin America producing resins and polymers. Thermax will hold a majority 51% stake in this new company, while OCQ will have a 49% share. Both companies expect to create significant value, strengthening their global market presence and delivering high-performance chemical solutions.
Bajaj Consumer Care completed acquisition of 49% equity share capital of Vishal Personal Care in first tranche. It had entered into a share purchase-cum-shareholders’ agreement with Peepul Capital Fund III LLC, Vishal Personal Care and others for acquiring 100% of the equity capital in two tranches (i.e., 49% of the equity share capital in tranche-1 and the remaining 51% in tranche-2).
Nazara Technologies successfully divested its 94.85% stake in OpenPlay Technologies (OpenPlay), which runs popular Rummy platform, Classic Rummy, to Moonshine Technology (Moonshine), the parent company of India’s biggest Poker platform, PokerBaazi. The transaction, valued at Rs104.33 crore, will be executed through the issuance of Moonshine’s compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) to Nazara and other sellers.
Syngene International will make an additional investment of up to US$56mn in equity share capital of Syngene USA Inc (SUSA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, in one or more tranches. The investment will be utilised to finance the cost of acquisition of biologics facility from Emergent Manufacturing Operations Baltimore, LLC, and for meeting the general corporate and day-to-day operating requirements.
Barbeque-Nation Hospitality partly completed the acquisition and acquired 42.36% equity share capital of Willow Gourmet (WGPL). Post the aforesaid acquisition, the shareholding of the Company in WGPL is 42.36%.
Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) received approval for raising of bonds as unsecured, taxable, redeemable, non-convertible, non-cumulative debentures (NCDs) of face value of Rs1,00,000 each (Series -F 2024) aggregating up to Rs2,842.50 crore on a private placement basis.
Senores Pharmaceuticals entered into the share purchase agreement (SPA) with certain shareholders of Havix Group Inc D/B/A Aavis Pharmaceuticals (Havix) for acquisition of 8,454 equity shares of Havix aggregating 3.73% of the total paid-up share capital of Havix and subject to the terms and conditions as mentioned in the SPA.
PB Fintech received approval from board of directors for an investment of up to Rs696 crore in PB Healthcare Services.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will acquire 100% equity shares in Darshita Southern India Happy Homes in an all-cash deal of Rs2,250 crore. The deal involves the acquisition of land and building held by Darshita Southern India Happy Homes to serve as a delivery centre for TCS.
