Stocks to watch, Oct 22: Persistent Systems, Eternal, IHCL, PC Jeweller, Swiggy, RIL, oil-sensitives, Havells India

The domestic stock market is expected to open deep in the red on Thursday, October 22. The GIFT NIFTY futures suggest that the NIFTY50 index will open 104 points lower.

Brent crude futures climbed 1.2% to $110.11 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 1% to $98.12, after reports of further Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia prompted the US to order some diplomats and their family members to leave the Kingdom.

While higher crude prices can benefit upstream oil producers, they may increase input costs for oil marketing companies (OMCs) such as IOC, BPCL and HPCL, as well as fuel-dependent sectors such as aviation and paints.

The impact on individual companies will depend on crude price movements, refining margins, fuel pricing and the extent to which higher costs can be passed on to consumers.

The company informed the stock exchanges on Wednesday that its special committee of the board approved opening the issue, the floor price, and the preliminary placement document.

The company set the floor price at ₹5,550 per equity share under SEBI's pricing formula.

The company may offer a discount of up to 5% on the floor price, in line with the approval accorded by members through a special resolution on October 5, it said.

"The issue size will comprise such number of equity shares of the company aggregating up to $450 million equivalent to ₹42,646.10 million, computed based on the RBI/FBIL reference rate of ₹94.7691 per US dollar as of October 19, 2026," Persistent said in the BSE filing.

It earned a net profit of ₹65 crore in the second quarter of the preceding financial year. Sequentially, post-tax profit surged 35.87%.

The operating profit, also known as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), advanced 214.64% to ₹752 crore as compared to ₹239 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

In a social media post on Wednesday, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said it also issued notices to Ira Fathima, Nutricia International and Mead Johnson Nutrition (India).

The matter relates to illegal advertising and promotion of infant milk substitutes through Instagram, the regulator said.

"An Instagram reel posted by Ira Fathima (@ira_fathima) was found to feature a 'Top 5' list recommending infant formula products," the FSSAI said.

The products featured were Nan-Pro 1, Aptamil Premium 1, Similac Advance 1, Enfamil A+ Stage 1 and Dexolac 1.

The promotional content attributed benefits such as balanced nutrition, stronger immunity, brain development and easy digestion to the products.

The Mahindra group's financial services arm said, given the farm sector stress, it will be watchful of the tractor loans, which occupy over 12% of the overall loanbook.

Its core net interest income (NII) grew 21% to ₹3,413 crore on the back of a 15% jump in the assets under management and the net interest margin (NIM) being stable at 7%.

The NIM, however, compressed when compared to the 7.3% in the quarter-ago period.

Its Managing Director and Chief Executive Raul Rebello attributed the Q2 NIM contraction to special financing to dealers, which it does ahead of festivities, and also to the higher liquidity buffer of ₹17,000 crore that it is carrying as against the usual ₹9,000 crore, which is a drag on the interest income.

"Maruti Suzuki will have double-digit growth in the whole festival season," the automaker's Senior Executive Officer for Marketing and Sales, Partho Banerjee, told PTI on Wednesday when asked about the outlook.

The provisional data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations showed that passenger vehicle registration during this year's Navratri period (October 11 to 20) fell 21.9% to 1.83 lakh units on a year-on-year basis because of a high base in the comparable year.

Making it clear that no decision has been reached on the subject, its managing director and chief executive R Subramaniakumar said the bank, a subsidiary of UAE's Emirates NBD, will see which activities can be done internally, which can be handled at the group level and the separate units which it needs to form.

"All the plans are under evaluation," Subramaniakumar told PTI, declining to share a timeline by when plans will be firmed up.

Activities like the asset management company or mutual fund, and also advisory businesses like retail broking and institutional broking, will have to be outside of the bank through specialized units.

IHCL had reported a net profit of ₹318.26 crore a year ago, a regulatory filing showed.

During the July-September period, the hospitality player's revenue from operations stood at ₹2,484.32 crore, against ₹2,040.89 crore a year ago.

However, its total expenses also increased to ₹2,017.41 crore, from ₹1,671.54 crore, the filing showed.

"The second quarter of FY27 marks the eighteenth consecutive record quarter. An increase of 25% in RevPAR from domestic same-store hotels, a 25% increase in management fee income led by new openings momentum, 25% revenue growth in select service business and the contribution from our recent acquisitions of Brij and Atmantan," IHCL Managing Director and CEO Puneet Chhatwal said.

The company had clocked a net profit of ₹209.54 crore during the July-September quarter of the previous year, according to a regulatory filing.

Total income rose 28% to ₹1,054.47 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal year from ₹825.25 crore a year ago.

Expenses remained higher at ₹759.42 crore as against ₹688.85 crore a year ago.

"A key milestone during the quarter was the company achieving debt-free status after repaying its outstanding dues to all 14 consortium banks ahead of schedule."

With interest costs expected to reduce significantly from the second half of FY27, the company expects its net profit to be positively impacted by the same, it added.

The company said it received remittances of about ₹142 crore from export debtors during Q2 following negotiations and resolving of issues, marking the start of realisation of long-pending receivables.

A preliminary analysis of around 3.75 lakh records available on the dark web identified 3,897 customer records containing sensitive information, including registered mobile numbers, dates of birth, names, gender, email addresses, and residential addresses, State Bank of India (SBI) said in the regulatory filing on Wednesday.

The exposed information reportedly also included branch and Customer Information File (CIF) identifiers, lead IDs, and metadata associated with loan and lead records and other related files.

Jio Platforms, in which Reliance owns a 66.4% stake, launched its IPO on Wednesday, seeking to raise about ₹30,213 crore at the upper end of its price band of ₹1,065-₹1,119 per share. The offering, comprising entirely fresh shares, will close on October 23.

Jio Platforms will use up to ₹27,500 crore of the proceeds to repay borrowings at its wholly owned telecom subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, with the remaining funds available for growth capital expenditure and working capital needs, according to CreditSights.

International Gemological Institute (IGI): The company on Wednesday reported a 43.14% rise in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) to ₹185.8 crore, on healthy demand and strong operational execution.

The company's PAT was ₹129.8 crore during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Its revenue from operations rose 31% to ₹398 crore during the quarter under review from ₹303.7 crore in the year-ago period.

"The second quarter of FY27 was marked by healthy demand trends and strong operational execution, with consolidated revenue up 31 per cent and PAT up 43 per cent year-on-year. IGI is category-neutral by design - certifying natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, jewellery and coloured gemstones to give buyers and sellers independent, consistent assurance of what they are buying.

According to sources, the internal review was initiated after senior executives flagged concerns over potential information leaks.

Investigators are examining whether the information disclosed was misused, sources said.

Acknowledging an internal review on the matter, a spokesperson for HDFC Bank said, "The bank is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethics and governance as outlined in our Code of Conduct. We take any report of potential violations seriously."

In line with the bank's policies, the spokesperson said an internal review into this matter is currently underway to gather and evaluate all relevant facts.