Stocks in focus: Axis Bank, Abbott India, Pfizer, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, India Cements

We would advise investors to stay cautious and look for buying opportunities on declines, as at current valuations, the upside looks limited

The Nifty futures were trading 75 points or 0.72 per cent higher at 10,471.50, suggesting a gap-up opening for BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 in Thursday’s trade. Market participants will keenly watch developments around coronavirus vaccine, newsflow related to COVID-19 cases, auto sales numbers for June and other global factors. “We would advise investors to stay cautious and look for buying opportunities on declines, as at current valuations, the upside looks limited. Q1 results which would kick start from next week would be keenly watched out,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Stocks in focus today:

Axis Bank: Axis Bank informed the bourses on Monday that its board will meet on Thursday, June 2, to explore raising funds through shares or depository receipts.

Abbott India, Pfizer: Aarti Industries, Ipca LabAdani Gas, ICICI General Insurance, PI Industries, and Trent, L&T Infotech, HDFC AMC, and Deepak Nitrite are among 11 stocks that are likely to be included in the futures & options (F&O) segment, according to a report by ICICI Securities.

Hero MotoCorp: Hero MotoCorp reported nearly 27 per cent decline in sales in June at 4.5 lakh units as compared to the same period of last year. The company had sold 6,16,526 units in June 2019 while it has despatched 1,12,682 units in May 2020.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories announced a partnership with Fujifilm Toyama Chemical and Global Response Aid (GRA) for development, manufacture and sale of antiviral drug Avigan (favipiravir) tablets for the potential treatment of Covid-19.

India Cements: The company has resumed operations in phases from April 2020, by adopting a series of precautionary and safety measures including the compliance of Standard Operating Procedure for Social Distancing and other measures, said in a press release. The capacity utilisation of the industry as well as of the Company is still below the normal levels. The prices have recovered smartly from April 2020. The company has informed that it has availed the first moratorium offered by Reserve Bank of India and has requested its lenders to extend the second moratorium, as per the recent guidelines issued by RBI.