Top gainers and losers today: Stocks that moved the most on March 5

Adani Wilmar

Adani Wilmar shares rose 8 percent on March 5 following its announcement about signing a definitive agreement to acquire GD Foods Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd. The acquisition of the company behind the popular ‘Tops’ brand, GD Foods Manufacturing, will take place in phases. Adani Wilmar will be acquiring an 80% stake in GD Foods in the first tranche, while the remaining 20% stake will be purchased over the next three years.

Hindustan Petroleum

Shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) jumped nearly 4% as oil marketing companies (OMCs) stocks extended their gains for the third consecutive session amid a decline in global crude oil prices. The uptrend comes after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) decided to gradually increase production, a move seen as favourable for India’s refiners as it improves their gross marketing margins on retail fuel.

Mahindra & Mahindra

Shares of leading SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) jumped over 4 percent on March 5, after international brokerage UBS Securities upgraded the stock to 'Buy' from 'Neutral'. The brokerage, however, lowered the price target for the stock to Rs 3,300 per share, down from the earlier Rs 3,460 apiece.

Avanti Feeds

Avanti Feeds shares jumped 6% after its subsidiary, Avanti Pet Care Pvt. Ltd. (APCPL), marked its foray into India's pet food segment. The company launched its cat food brand, "Avant Frust," in Hyderabad, expanding beyond its core aquaculture business.

Jindal Drilling

Jindal Drilling and Industries jumped nearly 9 percent on March 5 after the company announced that it has acquired jackup rig 'Jindal Pioneer' from Singapore-based Discovery Drilling. The company said the acquisition was worth $75 million (over Rs 653 crore at current conversion rate). Notably, Discovery Drilling is a joint venture of the company itself.

Tata Steel

Tata Steel shares surged nearly 5% after China announced that it would restructure its steel industry to cut its total output. The latest move by China is expected to reduce the dumping of cheap steel into the Indian market, which would act as a major positive to the domestic steel companies.

Deepak Nitrite

Shares of Deepak Nitrite gained over 4 percent during the session on March 5 after Kotak Institutional Equities upgraded the stock to 'Add' and raised its fair value target to Rs 2,020.

Top Losers

Bombay Stock Exchange

Shares of Asia's oldest bourse BSE Ltd. sank over 3 percent on March 5, after its competitor National Stock Exchange shifted its expiry day for all F&O contracts to Monday. All Nifty index weekly futures and options (F&O) contracts will expire on Monday instead of Thursday with effect from April 4. All Nifty F&O contracts to expire last Monday of expiry month, not Thursday, said the exchange.

Gensol Engineering

The shares of Gensol Engineering tumbled 10 percent to get locked in the lower circuit for the second consecutive day after multiple downgrades over ongoing delays in servicing its term loan obligations. The fall in the stock's price was fueled after brokerage ICRA alleged that the clean energy company falsified its documents on debt servicing.

RBZ Jewellers

The shares of RBZ Jewellers crashed nearly 5 percent on March 5, after the company informed about a fraud to the tune of Rs 2 crore committed by one of the employees. An exchange filing shared on March 4 said Om Kumar Manoj Kumar Shukla, one of the company's employees, falsified company's records over a period of time while working as a cashier at one of its branches. Shukla is alleged to have committed a fraud that has an estimated impact of Rs 1.98 crore.