Market movers: As ‘andar ki baat’ comes out, Lux Ind shares sink

NEW DELHI: About four years back, Lux Industries ran a TV commercial featuring Amitabh Bachchan for its product Lux Venus with a tagline 'yeh andar ki baat hai'. The tagline seems to be taunting the brand now.

As the news of Sebi ban on trading on Lux Industries’ executive director along with 13 others came out, shares of the underwear maker sank 20 per cent, hitting the lower circuit. This comes after the stock more than doubled in the last one year.

The market regulator barred 14 entities for insider trading and ordered impounding of “ill-gotten gains” worth Rs 2.94 crore in the matter of Lux Industries. The people who were banned include Udit Todi who is an executive director in the firm and is the son of the managing director.

Lately, Dalal Street cares a lot about corporate governance. Even a small lapse of judgement from the management usually has a reaction. Then an insider trading case leading to Sebi action was sure to bring mayhem.

Tax flies back to HAL
Investors are always looking for companies that can see bottomline growth, no matter how, as that means more dividend. Sometimes that comes in the form of superb operational performance and sometimes tax refunds, as happened in case of Hindustan Aeronautics.

The company on Tuesday said it has received a tax refund of Rs 110 crore. The company also received MAT credit of Rs 217 crore which the company said will be carried forward and adjusted against future tax liabilities.

The news led to heavy demand in the PSU stock. The stock rose about 5 per cent.

Google dialing Airtel?
After Rs 34,000 crore investment in Jio Platforms, Google may also make an investment in its rival Bharti Airtel, various reports suggested.

The telco plans to consider raising funds via a preferential share issue to investors other than its promoter group. The board meeting is scheduled for this on January 28. Reports said Google may bid for shares from its India Digitisation Fund, which it launched in 2020 with a corpus of Rs 75,000.

Following the reports, the stock climbed nearly 5 per cent during the day before settling with gains of 3 per cent.