Indian equity markets ended the last day of the fiscal on a sombre note. Nifty closed with loss of 33 points at 17,465, broader market outperformed and closed in green. “Given lot of global developments, we expect market volatility to remain high in the near term. However economic recovery coupled with government focus on Capex and domestic manufacturing would drive overall growth in FY23. We are positive on IT, select BFSI, commodities, retail, real estate, defence and telecom for FY23. Also one can consider FMCG, autos and Cement as contra plays and accumulate them gradually for long term.” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Stocks in focus on 1 April, Friday

Future Retail: Debt-ridden Future Retail’s CEO Sadashiv Nayak has resigned from the post seven months after his appointment, according to a filing. Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani has been re-appointed as executive chairman of the company for three years, a regulatory filing said on Thursday.

Vedanta: Vedanta on Thursday said its board has approved a proposal to source 580 MW of green energy for its operations across India. Billionaire Anil Agarwal-owned company has entered into certain long term power security agreements for green and renewable energy (RE) power for Hindustan Zinc, Bharat Aluminum Company and Vedanta (Jharsuguda Aluminium Operations) via captive power projects. These projects will be created through dedicated special purpose vehicle (SPV) for each entity.

Hindustan Zinc: Mining firm Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) on Thursday said it will invest ?350 crore to develop up to 200 megawatt (MW) renewable energy capacity through a special purpose vehicle. The project will be built under group captive norms on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), HZL said in a statement.

ONGC, Reliance Industries: The government on Thursday more than doubled the price of natural gas that is used to produce electricity, make fertilisers, turned into CNG and piped to household kitchens for cooking, on the back of a spike in global energy prices. The price of gas produced from old regulated fields, such as the nation’s largest gas field of Bassein of ONGC, will rise to a record high of USD 6.10 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from the current USD 2.90 per mmBtu, according to the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

Ruchi Soya: Patanjali Ayurved-owned Ruchi Soya on Thursday fixed the issue price of its follow-on public offer at the upper limit of its price band at Rs 650 per equity share to raise Rs 4,300 crore. The company hit the capital market with its FPO on March 24 to raise Rs 4,300 crore as it aims to become a debt-free company. The issue closed on March 28. The price band had been fixed at Rs 615-650 per share. In a regulatory filing, Ruchi Soya informed that the board of directors has approved the issue price at Rs 650 per equity share and also anchor investor issue price at Rs 650 per share.

Hero MotoCorp: The Income Tax Department has found alleged illegal business expenses of over Rs 800 crore, Rs 60 crore “unaccounted” cash used to purchase land in Delhi and role of some shell companies after it raided Hero Motocorp and two other groups. An expenditure of more than Rs 800 crore on the books of Hero MotoCorp was not for purposes of business but made for a service from an event management company, which allegedly siphoned off the amount, according to the I-T Dept probe. The dept also found that 10 acres of farm land in Delhi was purchased through a few paper companies.

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel and Tech Mahindra on Thursday announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop and market enterprise-grade digital solutions across 5G, private networks and cloud. Telecom operator Airtel has been undertaking 5G demonstrations and testing in India, while IT services major Tech Mahindra has developed 5G applications and platforms. Airtel and Tech Mahindra will co-develop and market 5G use cases in India.

Paytm: Paytm said on Thursday it will be able to use its buy-now-pay-later service to buy train tickets from the IRCTC website. “We strive to offer innovative tech-driven solutions to users to enable seamless digital payments and financial services. Paytm Postpaid (BNPL) will now be available for users who want to book train tickets through IRCTC. Through the partnership with IRCTC, Paytm PG hopes to offer seamless and secure digital payments to users for instant ticket bookings with the option to pay later,” said Praveen Sharma, chief executive officer of Paytm Payments Services.

Vodafone Idea: Vodafone Idea on Thursday said its board has approved the allotment of 3.38 billion equity shares at Rs 13.30 per scrip to three promoters group entities – Euro Pacific Securities, Prime Metals and Oriana Investments – for about Rs 4,500 crore. The telecom operator had earlier this month announced Rs 14,500 crore fundraising plans, where promoters would inject Rs 4,500 crore.

GAIL: Gail on Thursday approved a buyback of 57 million shares at Rs 190 apiece aggregating to Rs 1,083 crore. The buyback is at a 22 per cent premium to the company’s last closing price. Shares of Gail rose 1.5 per cent on Thursday to end at Rs 155.7. The buyback is being done through the tender route– this will allow the government, which holds 51.8 per cent stake, participate. Gail has said the buyback is for 2.5 per cent of its paid- up capital and free reserves as on March 31, 2021.