Stocks in focus: RIL, Aditya Birla Fashion, SBI Cards, Bajaj Auto, L&T, Federal Bank

BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 may make fresh record highs on Thursday, on the back of upbeat global cues. Nifty futures were ruling 51 points or 0.35 per cent higher at 14,695 on Singaporean Exchange. In the previous session, Indian indices ended at record closing highs. Yesterday, IRFC IPO was closed with 3.49 times subscription, while Indigo Paints initial public offer saw 1.90 times applications on day one of the bidding process. Today Home First Finance Company will open for subscription after it raised Rs 346 crore from anchor investors on Wednesday. Asian stocks markets cheered the 46th President of US and were trading higher. Similarly, Wall Street rose to record highs in overnight trade, with US stock indices ending at fresh record closing highs.

Stocks in focus today:

Reliance Industries Ltd: According to ANI, the capital market regulator SEBI has approved the Rs 24,713 crore deal between Kishore Biyani-led Future Group and Reliance Retail. Last year August, Reliance Retail Vetures Ltd (RRVL) announced to acquire the retail and wholesale business and the logistics and warehousing business from the Future Group.

SBI Cards, Bajaj-Auto: A total of 57 companies including Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, AAVAS Financiers, SBI Cards and Payment Services, Bajaj Holdings & Investment, Bandhan Bank, Biocon, Cyient, Jindal Steel & Power, JK Tyre & Industries, Kajaria Ceramics, Reliance Power, Zensar Technologies and Zicom Electronic Security Systems are set to announce their quarterly earnings on January 21.

Aditya Birla Fashion: Competition Commission of India on Wednesday said it has approved the acquisition of 7.8 per cent minority stake in Aditya Birla Fashion by Flipkart Investments Private Ltd (FIPL). Aditya Birla Fashion had in October last year approved plans to raise Rs 1,500 crore by issuing a 7.8 per cent stake on a preferential basis to Walmart-owned Flipkart Group.

Larsen and Toubro: Larsen and Toubro has entered the power map of Bangladesh winning orders to install a slew of transmission lines. The orders have come under four categories – significant, large, major and mega – with values ranging between Rs 1,000 crore and above Rs 7,000 crore.

Federal Bank: Federal Bank reported an 8.3% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) decline in its third quarter net profit to Rs 404.10 crore, mostly because of higher provisioning for bad loans. The lender had reported a net profit of Rs 440.64 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 307.62 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal.