Movers & Shakers | Top 10 stocks that moved the most last week

It was a volatile week for Indian markets but benchmark indices managed to hold on to crucial support levels, which suggest that the bulls remain firmly in control despite some profit-taking at higher levels. Both the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 rose 1.1 percent for the week ended June 25, compared to a 1.4 percent gains in small & midcap indices.

Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank of India | The stock was up 26 percent and 22 percent, respectively after the Centre shortlisted the two banks for divestment, CNBC Awaaz reported. The two state-run banks may see a 51 percent stake sale in the first phase of disinvestment. The government will amend the Banking Regulations Act and some other laws for divestment, the news channel reported. Both IOB and Central Bank are under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Under the PCA framework, the central bank imposes certain business restrictions on lenders with weak financial metrics.

Bharat Electronics | The scrip added 20 percent during the week after the state-owned aerospace and defence electronics company reported a net profit of Rs 1352.38 crore in the quarter ended March 2021, up 30.73 percent from the year-ago period. The company's sales rose 18 percent to Rs 6,757.05 crore in the quarter ended March 2021 against Rs 5,725.49 crore in the same quarter of FY 20. Vidnyan Sawant, AVP, technical research at GEPL Capital suggests buying the stock with a target of Rs 222. On the weekly charts, it has taken support at 20-week SMA and also formed an engulfing bullish candle, which shows a strong positive sentiment.

GMR Infra | The stock gained over 12 percent in the week gone by. The company narrowed consolidated loss to Rs 723.36 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. It had a consolidated loss after tax of Rs 1,126.82 crore in the same period a year ago, GMR Infrastructure said in a filing to the BSE. Its consolidated total income during the January-March period dropped marginally to Rs 2,519.25 crore from Rs 2,554.31 crore a year ago. Vikas Jain, Senior Research Analyst, Reliance Securities, suggests holding the stock. The scrip closed at an eight-year high with strong volumes and the recent news about demerger adds positive momentum to the stock. "We expect the stock to test 37 levels over the next few weeks. Any decline to the lower band of 27-30 levels would be a good opportunity to add longs," he said.

Thyrocare Technologies | The stock price gained 12 percent during the week. Online medical store PharmEasy announced on June 25 it would acquire a 66.1 percent stake in diagnostics services chain Thyrocare Technologies Ltd for Rs 4,546 crore. API Holdings Ltd (API), the parent company of PharmEasy, announced the "signing of definitive documents to acquire 66.1 percent stake in Thyrocare from Dr A Velumani and affiliates at a price of Rs 1,300 per share aggregating to Rs 4,546 crore", an official statement noted. The lack of a succession plan at Thyrocare could be a key reason for Dr Velumani to sell the company at a time when valuations are rewarding, sources privy to the development had earlier told Moneycontrol.

Godfrey Philips | The share price gained 12 percent after the company's net profit rose 146.19 percent to Rs 95.25 crore in the quarter ended March 2021 against Rs 38.69 crore during the same quarter in FY2020. The company's sales jumped 18 percent to Rs 694.70 crore in the quarter ended March 2021 as against Rs 588.71 crore in the year-ago period.

Godrej Agrovet | The scrip added 10 percent after promoter Godrej Industries acquired half a percent equity stake in Godrej Agrovet. The promoter was the buyer in a deal acquiring 9,76,047 equity shares in Godrej Agrovet at Rs 570 per share. Promoter and promoter group held 70.7 percent equity shareholding in Godrej Agrovet, including Godrej Industries' 59.9 percent stake. Ruchit Jain, Senior Analyst- Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking, said traders should continue to ride the trend with a trailing stop loss method. The breakout zone of Rs 600-590 should act as a support on  declines, while the next resistance is seen around its previous all-time high of Rs 715.

Maruti Suzuki | The auto major share price gained over 9 percent after the company announced a price hike. Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest manufacturer of passenger vehicles, will increase car prices in the July-September quarter to offset input price hikes. “Over the past year, the cost of the company's vehicles continues to be adversely impacted due to increase in various input costs. Hence, it has become imperative for the company to pass on some impact of additional cost to customers through a price rise. The price rise has been planned in quarter 2 and the increase shall vary for different models,” Maruti Suzuki said in a statement.

Apollo Hospitals | The stock added more than 6 percent in the week gone by. India's largest healthcare company on June 23 announced the creation of "India's largest omni-channel digital health platform" by merging its online, offline pharmacy and telemedicine verticals into a single entity called Apollo HealthCo. In the reorganisation, Apollo has transferred its back-end offline pharmacy business (excluding hospital-based pharmacies), digital healthcare platform Apollo 24/7, its investment in retail pharmacy business (Apollo Medicals Private Ltd), and the "Apollo 24/7" brand, the "Apollo Pharmacy" brand and private label brands into the healthcare group's 100 percent subsidiary Apollo HealthCo Limited. The company reported a quarterly net profit at Rs 115.52 crore in March 2021 down 43.81 percent from Rs 205.60 crore in March 2020.

Reliance Industries | The share price shed 5 percent last week. At the 44th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), chairman Mukesh Ambani made a number of key announcements, including the launch of JIOPhone Next in September, the induction of Saudi Aramco as a strategic partner and a cumulative investment of Rs 75,000 crore in the new energy business over the next three years. Morgan Stanly has an overweight rating with the target at Rs 2,262, while CLSA has an outperform rating with the target at Rs 2,250 a share. (Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.)

Ashok Leyland | The share price gained 6 percent after the company turned profitable in Q4FY21. The company posted a standalone net profit at Rs 241.1 crore in the fourth quarter of FY21 against a loss of Rs 57.3 crore in the year-ago period. Its standalone revenue was up 82 percent at Rs 7,000.5 crore versus Rs 3,838.5 crore in the year-ago quarter. The country’s third-largest commercial vehicle maker has lined up a capital expenditure of Rs 750 crore for FY22 but hopes to cut this down to conserve cash.