The move by stock exchanges to shift the scrip of
Avenue Supermarts to the so-called trade-to-trade (T2T) category earlier this month surprised the Street. However, this was as a blessing for the company, which operates the highly successful
DMart retail chain. Since March 2, shares of
Avenue Supermarts are down 6 per cent, as against a 11 per cent decline in the benchmark Nifty. Under the T2T segment, a stock has to be compulsorily marked for delivery. Typically, stocks that see excessive speculative activity are moved to this segment. Though
Avenue Supermarts has outperformed the market this month, it has come off 17 per cent from its peak — the same as the Nifty. --
Sundar Sethuraman
Shares of multinational companies (MNCs) have emerged as safer bets in the current market selloff. Since February 20, the Nifty has corrected 17 per cent, while an index of MNC companies has fallen about 12 per cent. Analysts say investors can look at
MNCs with less debt and those that have demonstrated good earnings growth in the past three years. “
MNC stocks have done well even in challenging environments. Also, the drop in stock prices might prompt foreign parents to up their stakes in their domestic arm. Low interest rates globally makes buybacks or open offers a very attractive proposition to MNC promoters,” said an analyst. --
Ashok Divase