Bulls are likely to maintain control over Dalal Street as SGX Nifty hinted at a positive start for Indian equities. Nifty futures were trading 149 pts or 0.86% higher on the Singapore Exchange, signalling that NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex were headed for a positive start. “Markets have made several attempts to move higher in the recent past but a lack of sustainability on the global front has derailed all the attempts. We thus recommend waiting for further clarity and limiting positions in the meanwhile. The banking and financial pack look strongest to us while others are seeing a mixed trend. Participants should align their positions accordingly,”

Stocks in focus on 18 October, Tuesday

Tata Coffee: The company recorded a 172% on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 147 crore for the quarter ended September FY23 driven by improved performance of plantation and instant coffee businesses and one-time exceptional income on disposal of a non-core property. Consolidated revenue increased by 31% on-year to Rs 718.3 crore during the quarter led by higher realisations in all businesses.

V-Mart: The fashion retailer on Monday said it will acquire online marketplace LimeRoad, in a move which will help the company expand its presence in the omni-channel space. The company has signed a “business transfer agreement with A M Marketplaces (LimeRoad) and certain other parties for the acquisition of its LimeRoad business as a going concern on a slump sale basis,” said V-Mart Retail in a regulatory filing.

TCS: Action against moonlighting can ruin a person’s career and hence, it is important to show empathy while dealing with the issue, a top official from TCS has said. Nothing prevents the country’s biggest IT services exporter from taking action against employees for moonlighting when it has evidence because it is a part of the service agreement, but young kids will have to be dissuaded, the company’s chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam told PTI.

Zee Entertainment: Invesco Developing Markets Fund is tipped to offload a 5.51% stake in Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) in a block trade that could fetch the investor as much as $169.5 million. The block trade is expected to see Invesco offload over half of its stake in Zee Entertainment, which stood at 10.14% as of June 30, held through OFI Global China Fund LLC. The block trade involves sale of 52.93 million shares at a price range of Rs 250 to Rs 263.7 per equity share, a discount of 0.0% to 5.2% to the Monday’s closing price of Rs 263.70.

ACC: The cement manufacturer posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 87.32 crore for the quarter ended September 30, impacted by cost pressures due to steep rise in fuel prices. The net loss came as a surprise as analysts were expecting the company to post a net profit of Rs 220.60 crore. In comparison, the company had posted a net profit of Rs 450.21 crore during the same period a year ago. The firm, which was acquired by the Adani Group, has also terminated its agreement with Holcim for payment of technology fees at 1% of eligible net sales, effective September 16.

Spandana Sphoorty Financial: The non-banking finance company has turned profitable with Q2FY23 net at Rs 49.5 crore against a loss of Rs 222.68 crore in the previous quarter and a loss of Rs 58.87 crore in Q2FY22. Revenue fell 24.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 281 crore, but grew by 21 percent sequentially.

Q2 Results today: Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Heritage Foods, HFCL, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, JSW Ispat Special Products, KPIT Technologies, L&T Technology Services, Mahindra CIE Automotive, Network18 Media & Investments, Newgen Software Technologies, Polycab India, Schaeffler India, Tata Communications, Tinplate Company of India, and TV18 Broadcast stocks will be in focus ahead of quarterly earnings on October 18.