Stocks to watch, August 17: HAL, NTPC, Solar Industries, Reliance Industries, Voltas, Amber Enterprises

The domestic stock market is expected to open lower on Monday, August 17. The GIFT NIFTY futures suggest that the NIFTY50 index will open 52 points lower.

The prime minister emphasised self-reliance in advanced capabilities like hypersonic technology and drone systems while listing ‘Raksha Shakti’ among seven key pillars to build a developed nation by 2047.

PM Modi, delving into external and internal security threats facing the nation, announced that a comprehensive network of civil defence personnel will be developed.

“We must become self-reliant in the defence sector. We must set ourselves the goal of developing next-generation defence technologies and moving towards becoming a global supplier. We must develop drones and counter-drone systems, and we must take leadership in hypersonic defence technologies,” the PM added.

PM said, “Energy security is the demand of the time. With the SHANTI Act passed in Parliament, we have created the framework to achieve our goal. Our goal is to achieve 100 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity. We aim to start five new nuclear reactors in this decade,” positioning nuclear as a cornerstone of India’s strategy to secure baseload power for chips, AI, data centres and heavy industry.

During the first quarter of this fiscal year, Lodha Developers launched only one housing project in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), comprising 4 lakh sq ft of area and a revenue potential of ₹330 crore.

According to its latest investor presentation, Lodha Developers has a strong launch pipeline for the remaining three quarters of this fiscal year.

It will launch seven new housing projects across MMR, Delhi-NCR, Pune, and Bengaluru with a total area of 5.9 million sq ft and a total revenue potential of ₹9,850 crore.

The company will also launch new phases in 14 existing projects, totalling 9.7 million sq ft, with a total revenue potential of ₹14,210 crore, the presentation said.

As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), all listed companies must maintain an MPS of 25%.

"We have got board approval for a fundraise through qualified institutional placement (QIP), and other means as part of an effort to bring down the government holding in a phased manner," Punjab & Sind Bank MD and CEO Swarup Kumar Saha told PTI in an interview.

Besides, he said, the bank has onboarded merchant bankers and legal advisors for the same.

The proposed fundraise may happen this financial year depending on market conditions, the CEO added.

The project has been secured through the e-tender process.

"Letter of Award (LOA) has been received from NHAI for engaging as user fee agency at Madangundi Fee Plaza at 12.3 km on NH-31... in Jharkhand," the company said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.

The value of the awarded project is ₹28.47 crore, while the tenure is 12 months.

Hazoor Multi Projects (HMPL) is into renewable energy and building road projects on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis.

In addition, the public sector lender may mop up another $600 million via ECB before the Reserve Bank of India's deadline of December 31, 2026.

"The bank is considering raising $400 million via the ECB route as early as this week...the overseas fundraise would come at a very competitive rate," Indian Bank MD and CEO Binod Kumar told PTI in an interview.

Post-August, he said, the bank would consider garnering another $600 million as the RBI window is available till the end of the calendar year.

Overall, the bank is planning to garner $1 billion from the ECB and about $2 billion via Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) or FCNR (B) deposits, Kumar said.

The two companies, in a joint statement, said they would explore forming a dedicated Aerospace Gas Turbine Complex in India, envisioned as a centre of excellence for power and propulsion technology, covering design, development, manufacturing, testing, production and through-life support of combat engines.

Amber Enterprises India Executive Chairman and CEO and whole-time director Jasbir Singh, during the company's earnings call, said that the firm expects to start with production of 8 million units of Oppo group smartphone brands and scale it twofold to around 16 million units in the second year of operations.

"Our group is set to foray into mobile phones through a manufacturing collaboration agreement with Oppo Mobiles India. The scope covers three brands, Oppo, OnePlus and Realme. We are on course to commence the trial production by quarter 4 of FY27 and commercial production to begin quarter 1 of FY28," he said.

The investment will increase the company's cold rolling capacity from 2.05 MTPA to 2.67 MTPA by FY28, he said in the company's annual report for FY26.

Besides upstream, the company is also making significant investments to build up its downstream capabilities, the industry executive said.

"Our ₹900 crore investment across Hisar and Kharagpur, along with new hot rolled annealing, pickling, and cold rolling facilities at Jajpur, will...support a higher-value mix for automotive, appliances, food processing, and industrial applications," Jindal said.

The US approval removes a key hurdle for ONGC's Venezuelan investments and could pave the way for the state-run explorer to expand production, sign new agreements and take over operatorship of some projects from Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, Anupam Agarwal, director-finance at ONGC, said at an investor call after the first-quarter earnings announcement.

"Now we have full freedom to work on the Venezuela project because earlier we were restricting our operations there because of the sanction-related risks. Those risks are behind us," Agarwal said.

The company had clocked a net profit of ₹15.14 crore in the April-June period of the preceding 2025-26 fiscal year, an exchange filing said on Friday.

During the first quarter, the company increased total income to ₹176.68 crore, up 15%, from ₹153.54 crore in Q1 FY26.

In a separate statement, the company's Chairman Ram Gopal Bansal said, "We have reported a robust start to FY27, marked by healthy profitability growth and steady progress on our strategic expansion. EBITDA rose 22.2% year-on-year, and EBITDA margin stood at a healthy 25.1%, an expansion of 147 bps year-on-year."

The leading air-conditioning maker and engineering services provider had posted a consolidated net profit of ₹140.61 crore in the April-June period a year ago, according to a regulatory filing.

Revenue from operations stood at ₹4,673.5 crore in the June quarter of FY27, up 18.65% from ₹3,938.58 crore in the year-ago quarter.

"Voltas delivered a strong performance in Q1 FY27, significantly outperforming competition in Room Air Conditioners and further strengthening its market leadership," the company said in its earnings statement.

Voltbek Home Appliances, a JV between Voltas and Turkish firm Arçelik, registered its "highest ever quarterly sales in both value and volume", the company said. The Projects and Engineering businesses provided resilience and balance to the diversified portfolio, it added.

Its net profit stood at ₹180.35 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income rose to ₹11,341.89 crore during the first quarter of this fiscal year from ₹8,779 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding year, according to a regulatory filing.

The edible oil business contributed ₹8,504 crore in revenue during the April-June period of the 2026-27 fiscal year, while the FMCG vertical accounted for ₹2,937.74 crore of the total revenue.

Its sales bookings or pre-sales stood at ₹1,118 crore in the year-ago period.

In its latest investor presentation, the company said it achieved pre-sales of ₹1,061 crore with a volume of 0.74 million sq ft in the April-June quarter of the 2026-27 fiscal.

The sales volumes dropped 22% from 0.94 million sq ft in the first quarter of the last financial year.

However, the average sales realisation stood at ₹14,256 per sq ft during the June quarter, a growth of 21% over the year-ago period.

Bengaluru-based Brigade Enterprises is one of the leading real estate developers in the country.

The company had posted a net loss of ₹68.55 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income rose to ₹877.15 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal year from ₹538.64 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding year, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

Bengaluru-based Puravankara Ltd is one of the largest real estate companies in the country.

The company has so far completed 97 projects totalling 59 million sq ft of area across nine cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Mangaluru, Kochi, Mumbai, Pune, and Goa.

Its net profit stood at ₹11.93 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income was flat at ₹80.07 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal year compared to ₹80.12 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding year, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.