Mid-Day stock watch on March 18

Hours since the markets opened today, after a careful observation of stocks' movements and analysis, we have chalked out five stocks worth watching during the latter part of the session.

a) Bhushan Steel: The lenders consortium may soon step up pressure on Bhushan Steel to trim debt. The company’s consolidated debt stood at about Rs 40000 crore. The major lenders to the company are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank.

b) DLF: DLF is going to sell its shopping mall to its own subsidiary. The company’s structuring is in line with the strategy to structure ownership of existing assets in order to facilitate potential monetisation either through REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) in future.

c) Torrent Pharmaceuticals: Torrent Pharmaceuticals received approval for Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from USFDA for its plant located at Dahej SEZ, in Gujarat. Prior, to this approval, the plant has also received approval from Germany.

d) Financial Technologies: The Bombay High Court extended stay on crisis-hit NSEL's merger with Financial Technologies (FTIL) till April 22. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had ordered the merger of FTL with NSEL (National Spot Exchange Limited) earlier in February.

e) Lupin: CLSA downgraded Lupin after USFDA action. The Indian government banned 344 Fixed Dosage Combination (FDC) drugs on March 17.  Therefore all pharmaceutical companies would be in focus today. The company’s share price hits 52 week low and touched Rs 1552 on an intraday basis.