Stocks to watch, July 9: HFCL, TCS, GM Breweries, Anand Rathi Wealth, oil-senstives, Heritage Foods, NALCO

The domestic stock market is expected to open higher on Thursday, July 9. The GIFT NIFTY futures suggest that the NIFTY50 index will open 77 points higher.

The company will also increase its stake in South Africa-based Adcock Ingram Holdings Proprietary Ltd (Adcock Ingram) to 49% from 35.75%, with the "acquisition valued at ₹1,069 crore at the prevailing exchange rate", NATCO Pharma said in a regulatory filing.

The board of directors at its meeting held on Wednesday approved investing up to "₹1,400 crore in Natco Pharma South Africa Proprietary Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary", it added.

As for increasing stake in Adcock Ingram, Natco said it will acquire 19,618,825 shares for ZAR 92.50 (₹5.89) per share, thus increasing its holding from 35.75% to 49% with a total investment cost of ZAR 1.8 billion (₹1,069 crore at the prevailing exchange rate), excluding certain associated transaction costs and other expenses.

During the first half of 2025-26, input costs remained largely stable; however, prices of key raw materials began trending upward from the start of the second half of the year, said India's third-largest cement company in its annual report.

Towards the end of the fiscal year, geopolitical tensions in West Asia disrupted global supply chains, leading to a sharp spike in the cost of coal, petcoke, packing bags and other materials, the company said.

"The major impact of this intense increase on production costs would be felt in 2026-27," Shree Cement said. ** NALCO, NLC India**: State-owned National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) on Wednesday announced entering into a joint venture agreement with NLC India Ltd (NLCIL) to set up a 1,080 MW thermal captive power plant in Odisha.

The joint venture-cum-shareholders' agreement (JVA) has been signed for the formation of a 50:50 joint venture company to develop a 4x270 MW (1,080 MW) thermal captive power plant in Anugola, Odisha, Nalco said in a regulatory filing.

The plant will supply captive power to Nalco's 0.5 MTPA aluminium smelter expansion project.

Nalco said the collaboration will also explore long-term arrangements for 200-250 MW of firm renewable energy (RE-RTC) and secure long-term coal supply agreements.

The JV entity will “execute a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NALCO for 100 per cent offtake of power under Section 62 of the Electricity Act, 2003, and a Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with NLCIL for coal at Coal India notified prices, the filing said.

"This price increase is attributed mainly to commodity cost escalations," Mahindra & Mahindra said in a statement.

The extent of the price increase will vary across specific products, it added.

M&M's SUV portfolio consists of the popular Scorpio range, Thar, XUV 3XO, and XUV 7XO, among others, which are priced between ₹7.54 lakh and ₹ 25.07 lakh (ex-showroom).

While announcing the launch of HFCL's data centre solution portfolio, OptiQ AI, its managing director, Mahendra Nahata, said there is huge demand for optical fibre cables in the data centre segment, especially in the US, which is driving growth in the industry.

“We are expanding our capacities for manufacturing fibre, fibre optic cable, as well as integration, backward integration in terms of manufacturing of free forms, which is the main raw material for manufacturing fibre. Total capex will be about ₹950 crore, which will be spent in the next two years," Nahata said.

Nahata said that the total capex includes about ₹580 crore for preform, a cylindrical glass rod that is a basic raw material to manufacture optical fibres.

The dairy company said "Fresh Paneer" refers to the inherent nature of paneer as a fresh dairy product made from pasteurised milk for refrigerated consumption with a limited shelf life, and is not an exaggerated quality claim.

Rescue and relief operations are underway with support from the Fire Brigade, NDRF, the Indian Army and local authorities, while the company is assisting affected personnel and their families.

Antony Waste said the plant was under a scheduled maintenance shutdown at the time of the incident, with limited staff on site, and added that no immediate material impact on its operations has been identified based on preliminary information.