Stocks in focus: Yes Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, DHLF, FMCG shares, Mahindra and Mahindra

SGX Nifty was trading flat on Friday morning, hinting at a muted opening for domestic benchmark indices. Today marks the start of the December series contracts and analysts are hopeful that Nifty could move higher from here. “The formation of the reversal pattern of Wednesday (bearish engulfing) seems to have not been confirmed, as Nifty bounced back sharply in the subsequent session. This market action could open Nifty to move towards the recent all time high of 13145 levels in the near term. Important support is placed at 12800 levels,” said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.

Although the overall sentiment remains positive with optimism around vaccine development and the transition at the White House, profit booking has not been ruled out. “Technically, Nifty has to hold above 12900 to witness a bounce towards 13150-13250 levels while the support exists at 12800. Globally, investors would watch out for developments over stimulus announcements from the new US government. On the domestic side, investors would await Q2 GDP data which is expected to improve QoQ, led by increased economic activity,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal.

Mahindra & Mahindra: The firm announced that Mahindra Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, has agreed to sell its entire stake in Mahindra First Choice Services Limited to TVS Automobile Solutions Private Limited.

FMCG stocks: India’s FMCG sector has displayed signs of recovery in the July-September quarter, according to a report by Nielsen. Rural India continues to grow rapidly while bigger cities played catch-up.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank: The troubled private sector bank will go off the stock exchanges today after its merger with DBS Bank India comes into force. Lakshmi Vilas Bank will also be writing down Tier-2 binds worth Rs 318 crore, it informed the bourses yesterday. Shares of the bank have gained in the last two trading sessions.

DHFL: Kapil Wadhawan, the co-founder of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation has moved an application at National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai, requesting to defer consideration of bids. He has urged NCLT to direct CoC to consider his resolution plan as the current bids were too low.

Yes Bank: The private sector bank got a nod from the Supreme Court yesterday to auction agricultural land that former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivender Singh had offered as collateral against a loan of Rs 1,065 crore taken between 2015-16.