Indian equity markets are likely to open gap down on Monday as early trends trends on SGX Nifty hinted at a negative start benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50. Nifty futures tumbled 197.50 points or 1.15 per cent to trade at 16,982.50 on the Singaporean Exchange. In the previous session, the equity market snapped its two-day winning streak as headline indices declined more than 1 per cent amid across-the-board selling. “Till Nifty remains below 17,350 zones, it may see weakness towards 17,000 and 16,950 zones. Index is likely to remain volatile in the broader trading range with absence of follow up activities on both the side,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Stocks in focus on 25 April, Monday

ICICI Bank: ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a smart 59% on-year jump in net profits for the three months to March at Rs 7,019 crore, helped by a big 63% on-year fall in provisions. The numbers were ahead of analysts’ estimates. With this, the private sector lender ends FY22 on a strong note, having posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 23,339 crore for the year, an increase of 44%. The bank’s asset quality showed an improvement with the net NPA (non-performing assets) ratio declining to 0.76% at the end of March from 0.85% at the end of December 2021 and 1.14% in March 2021.

HDFC Bank: HDFC Bank on Saturday declared a 1550 per cent or 15.50 per share dividend to its shareholders for the financial year 2021-22. The board at its meeting has recommended a dividend of Rs 15.50 per equity share of Re 1 (1550%) out of the net profits for the year ended March 31, 2022, HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing. This is subject to the approval of the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting, it said. The record date for determining the eligibility of members entitled to receive dividend on equity shares is May 13, 2022, it said.

Reliance Industries: Reliance Industries (RIL) has called off the deal to purchase the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing business of Future group on Saturday after secured creditors voted against the Rs 24,713 crore transaction at the NCLT. The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate filed an exchange filing saying the deal can’t be implemented without the backing of secured creditors. A majority of lenders to Future Group rejected a deal involving the sale of its retail assets to RIL in NCLT, with 69.29% voting against. At least 75% vote was required for the deal to pass muster.

Future Group: RIL has called off a proposed transaction with Future Retail (FRL) following opposition from FRL’s secured creditors. In a filing with the stock exchanges, RIL said, “The Future Group companies comprising Future Retail Ltd (FRL) and other listed companies involved in the scheme have intimated the results of the voting on the scheme of arrangement by their shareholders and creditors at their respective meetings.” This makes bankruptcy a strong possibility for the Future Group, which owes Rs 29,000 crore to its lenders.

Tejas Networks: Tejas Networks posted a loss of Rs 49.62 crore in the quarter ended March 2022 against a profit of Rs 33.55 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal due to lower revenue growth. The telecom and networking products maker’s revenue fell 37 per cent to Rs 126.5 crore against Rs 201.5 crore during the same period of last year due to global chip shortages. The company continued to see a positive business momentum with a strong Q4 order inflow of Rs 316 crore, taking the order book to an all-time high of Rs 1,175 crore.

PVR: PVR saw a huge block deal last week as BlackRock Inc bought 37,613 equity shares in the multiplex chain operator through open market transactions on April 21. With this, its shareholding in the company rose to 5.01 per cent, up from 4.95 per cent earlier.

Q4 Results Today: Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem, Tata Investment Corporation, Century Textiles & Industries, Eveready Industries India, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Mahindra CIE Automotive, Meghmani Finechem, Arihant Capital Markets, Artson Engineering, Automotive Stampings & Assemblies, Axita Cotton, Divyashakti, Maharashtra Scooters, Snowman Logistics, Steel Exchange India, Sylph Technologies, Triveni Enterprises, and VTM.