Reliance, Wipro, Jubilant FoodWorks, Crompton Greaves hit 52-week lows

Shares of India's most valued company in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap) – Reliance Industries (RIL), information technology (IT) firm Wipro, restaurants company Jubilant FoodWorks, and household appliances firm Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals were among notable companies that hit their respective 52-week lows in Monday’s intra-day trade, after over 1 per cent fall in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Max Financial Services, Mphasis, Emami, HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC), Pfizer, Network18, Godrej Agrovet, Laurus Labs and Motilal Oswal Financial Services were also among 34 stocks from the S&P BSE 500 index that hit their respective 52-week lows. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex and S&P BSE 500 indices were down 1.3 per cent, at 12:09 pm.

Shares of RIL hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 2,183.6, down 2 per cent in Monday's intra-day trade. The stock quoted lower for the eight straight day and declined 10 per cent, during this period. RIL quoted at its lowest level since March 8, 2022, when it had hit a low of Rs 2,181 in intra-day trade.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan, in a report, noted that RIL offers long-term investors an attractive entry opportunity, citing multiple catalysts, including potential listings of consumer businesses, petrochemical growth, and large 5G capex monetisation. CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

On the other hand, shares of Wipro, too, declined 2 per cent to hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 367.75, after reports suggested that the company laid off 120 employees in the US due to realignment of business. Moreover., the laid-off employees included over 100 processing agents, several team leaders along with a team manager.

In past one year, the stock of IT company slipped 40 per cent, as against 1 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

"Wipro guided -0.6 per cent to 1 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) constant currency revenue growth in IT services for Q4, below our estimates, factoring in softness in discretionary spending and slower revenue conversion due to prevailing macro uncertainties," analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services said.

Wipro management said that the cut back in discretionary spend, and slow ramp-up of deals won were the reasons for slower growth in Q3FY23 and likely slower growth in the near future. The company, however, is optimistic about revenue growth in the medium term, without indicating when it sees it picking up.

Analysts at Nirmal Bang Equities, on the other hand, believes that growth could be a challenge in April-June quarter (Q1FY24) too, not just because of the cautious customer behavior but also due to the added issue of productivity concessions kicking in for some large clients (as has been the case normally).

“We believe that if customers are behaving in this cautious fashion when the US macro is reasonably resilient, we believe things will only get worse when we see a shallow recession (our base case) sometime in 2023,” the brokerage firm said.

Shares of Mphasis, too, hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 1,815, as it slipped 4 per cent on the BSE. In the past one year, the stock tanked 41 per cent.