Bharti Airtel, ITC among top stocks hogging limelight today

The Sensex and Nifty are expected to open flat as Asian markets struggled to gain traction on Friday, following a mixed end to Wall Street trade and as the worsening Sino-US trade dispute kept investors in the region cautious, despite signs of rapprochement between the United States and Europe. At 8:00 am, SGX Nifty was trading unchanged at 11,167. 

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade. Japan’s Nikkei eked out a 0.3 percent gain though it was capped by worries that the Bank of Japan could scale down its asset purchase at its upcoming policy review next week.

Here are top stocks in focus today:

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel reported the first ever loss of Rs 940 crore from its mainstay India business for the June quarter as it bled to retain market dominance in the face of free voice calls and dirt cheap tariffs from Reliance Jio. Airtel, however, reported a Rs 97 crore net profit on a consolidated basis in the April-June period after taking into account revenues from its Africa business.

ITC: Diversified ITC reported 10 per cent increase in standalone net profit at Rs 2,818.68 crore for the first quarter ended on June 30, 2018, aided by lower expenses, good growth in agri-business and other FMCG business despite decline in cigarettes sales. The company had posted a standalone net profit of Rs 2,560.50 crore in the first quarter last fiscal, ITC said in a BSE filing.

Vedanta: Vedanta Resources Plc's Zambian unit said on Thursday work at its Konkola Copper Mine underground copper shaft 4 was halted after one miner was killed in an accident to allow for investigations into the incident, the company said. The firm said in June that it plans to double finished copper production at its Konkola mines to 200,000 tonnes this year.

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HPCL: India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) cancelled the purchase of an Iranian oil cargo earlier this month after its insurance company refused to provide coverage for the crude because of U.S. sanctions, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. 

Biocon: Biotechnology major Biocon today reported a 47 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 120 crore for the quarter ended June 2018 on account of robust performance across segments. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 81 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Biocon said in a filing to BSE.