Stocks To Watch, February 9: SBI, Amber Enterprises, BSE Ltd, Graphite India, PFC, REC, L&T, Titan Co, apparel, footwear, chemical stocks

India and the US announced on Saturday that they have reached a framework for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement, under which both sides will reduce import duties on a number of goods to boost two-way trade.

According to a joint statement, the US will reduce tariffs on Indian goods to 18%. The US has removed the punitive 25% additional duty on Indian goods, and the 25% reciprocal tariffs are expected to be reduced to 18% soon.

The duties will be cut down on Indian goods, including textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, home decor, artisanal products, and certain machinery.

Duties will also be reduced on gems, diamonds, and aircraft parts.

“Financial bids have been received for the strategic divestment of IDBI Bank.

"They will be evaluated as per the prescribed procedure,” Dipam said, without disclosing further details.

On a standalone basis, a special dividend by the IPO-bound asset management arm helped the country's largest bank report a 24% jump in the net profit to ₹21,028 crore, its highest ever.

SBI Mutual Fund, which is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), paid a ₹2,200 crore special dividend, which was cited by Chairman C S Setty as one of the reasons for the high profit growth.

In a regulatory filing, the company stated that its subsidiary Anant Raj Cloud has partnered with Submer to "develop fully operational AI-ready data centres across India".

The company said that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed.

Post-merger, PFC will continue to remain as a 'government company'.

The board approval for the merger of PFC and REC came after an announcement made in this regard in the Budget on Sunday.

Earlier, pursuant to 'In Principle' approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), PFC acquired 52.63% of the government's holding in REC Limited (REC) for ₹14,500 crore in March 2019.

Accordingly, REC has been operating as a subsidiary company of state-owned PFC.

The Tata group firm, which operates Helios and Helios Luxe formats, said Swiss brands will become more competitive in the domestic market as they pass on duty benefits to consumers.

Its Swiss segment has been growing substantially and is in talks with more brands for its chain of Helios and Helios Luxe, Titan Watches Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Rahul Shukla told PTI.

The deal marks RCPL’s entry into the burgeoning consumer goods market in Australia, while reaffirming its commitment to deliver ‘global quality at an affordable price’.

Under the Strategic Partnership, RCPL will help promote Goodness Group’s flagship healthy beverage brands like Nexba and PACE – a hydration brand co-created with Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins – across newer markets, including India, the press release added.

It had reported a profit of ₹295.49 crore in the October-December period of the preceding 2024-25 financial year, the company said in an exchange filing.

The company's total income rose to ₹57,503.49 crore during the quarter from ₹53,869.33 crore in the year-ago period.

The Tata Steel group is among the country's top global steel companies, with an annual crude steel capacity of 35 million tonnes per annum.

The total capital expenditure for the data centre stands at around ₹1,000 crore.

In the semiconductor business, L&T is focusing on design-led chips and engaging with multiple customers, with most spending being expensed through the profit and loss account, the company said during the Q3 earnings conference call.

As far as the electrolyser business is concerned, the company has developed a fully indigenous 4 MW stack and is upgrading it to 8–10 MW. It expects significant orders in the near term.

The Mumbai-based drug major is also evaluating biosimilar segments, Shanghvi stated.

"I think the US continues to be an important part of our focus, specifically for innovative medicines," Shanghvi said when asked about the company's M&A strategy in an analyst call.

The company is interested in selling innovative medicines globally, Shanghvi added.

While Maruti Suzuki India is reviewing the situation for a possible price hike, Hyundai Motor India has already undertaken a price increase in January, mainly on the Venue model.

"Yes, we have been facing pressure on the commodity side for nearly a year now. Still, we see pressure on the precious metal side, copper, and so on. Overall, if you see the impact of commodity price increases, it has been for us about 2 per cent plus of our revenues," Chandra said in a quarterly earnings call.

He was responding to a query on whether the company was planning to hike prices of its vehicles due to the rising cost of commodities.

Reiterating that the company is going to increase prices, Chandra said,"We will be able to announce this in the coming weeks."

The company is targeting sales volumes of 9-9.5 million tonnes in the January-March quarter.

It noted that the Centre’s push to utilise infrastructure allocations by March 31 is likely to support demand.

While pricing remained a focus in the earlier part of the year, the company is now looking to ramp up capacity utilisation as volumes improve, an official said.

Separately, Shree Cements outlined an aggressive expansion plan for its ready-mix concrete (RMC) business, with the company aiming to scale up its RMC footprint to 45 plants from the current 19 units over the next six to eight months.