BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were staring at a negative start on Thursday, a day of weekly F&O expiry. Nifty futures were trading 46 points or 0.3 per cent down at 17,210 on the Singaporean Exchange. In the previous session, BSE Sensex was down 304 points and closed at 57,684.82 while Nifty 50 fell nearly 70 points to settle at 17,245.65. Analysts expect the market to consolidate in the near term in the absence of any major news flow or developments. “Nifty needs to hold and close above 17,350 for an up move towards 17,500-17,750 levels. Strength in heavyweight sectors like Metals, Pharma and Oil & Gas are providing the much needed support to the market,” Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said.

Stocks to watch

TCS: Tata Consultancy Services’ Rs 18,000-crore share buyback was subscribed over 7.5 times on Wednesday, the last day for tendering shares. Investors offered 30.12 crore shares in the buyback process, against the company’s offer of four crore shares.

Ruchi Soya: Patanjali-backed Ruchi Soya Industries has garnered Rs 1,290 crore from anchor investors ahead of its further public offering (FPO) that opens for public subscription on Thursday. The FPO is going to be only a fresh issuance of equity shares to public investors without any offer for sale component.

HDFC: Housing Development Finance Corporation has approved retail home loans totalling more than Rs 2 trillion in the current fiscal year — the highest ever in a financial year. The mortgage lender said its thrust on digital initiatives and an inherent demand for housing have helped it achieve the target.

L&T Finance Holdings: The promoter Larsen & Toubro raised a stake in L&T Finance Holdings through bulk deals and market purchase. While L&T picked up 21.22 million shares at an average price of Rs 83.52 on the NSE, the engineering behemoth also bought another 20.27 million shares from the BSE. The combined transaction is valued at Rs 3.48 billion. The sellers are not immediately known.

One97 COmmunications: Shares of One 97 Communications, which have lost three fourths of their value since listing, nosedived to an all-time low on Wednesday. In a clarification to the exchange, Paytm’s parent firm affirmed that the business fundamentals were robust and the company had been complying with all regulations laid down by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Kotak Mahindra Bank: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is expected to sell stake via a bulk deal on March 24 to make a partial exit from Kotak Mahindra Bank. The Canadian pension fund will offload a 1.41% to 2.02% stake in the private lender at Rs 1,681.26-Rs 1,769.75 per share through the bulk deal. The deal size is 28 million shares, which would further include an additional 12 million shares — taking the total deal size to 40 million.

Zomato: The food delivery giant informed about the dissolution of its step-down subsidiary Zomato Canada Inc.