“Apart from one or two companies, across all sectors, we are going to see large scale downgrades because one cannot keep passing on input prices because consumers start to trade down and do not buy. That is what the problem is going to be. Margin pressure will be there and if that is accompanied by any kind of reduction in sales.”

JM Financial Institutional Securities’ MD & Chief Strategist Dhananjay Sinha suggests a few key themes for portfolio management.

Asset quality continued to improve with credit cost coming off YoY and NPA ratios declining further QoQ. SMA numbers seem under control, indicating positive asset quality outlook.

The IPO is entirely an offer for sale (OFS), wherein existing shareholders will be offloading 85,49,340 equity shares. Wagner Ltd, an entity of TA Associates, will offload 82,81,340 equity shares and Shirish Patel, Whole Time Director and Chief Executive Officer of Prudent, will sell up to 2,68,000 equity shares.

Earlier in the year, TCS completed a Rs 18,000-crore buyback process, the fastest in recent history, while Infosys wrapped up a Rs 9,200-crore buyback last year.

The sanctions proposal, which was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and needs unanimous backing by the 27 EU countries to take effect, includes phasing out supplies of Russian crude in six months and refined products by the end of 2022.

ABB India, Ramsarup Industries and S&T Corporation will hold their annual general meetings (AGMs) today. Pritish Nandy Communications, Nova Iron & Steel, Trishakti Electronics & Industries and Regency Ceramics will hold EGMs today.

CRR has been hiked to 4.5% from 4%, now taking it above the pre pandemic level when it was reduced to 3% as part of the central’s banks efforts to support the economy due to the pandemic and subsequently raised to 3.5% in 2021. In his statement governor Shaktikanta Das said the hike in CRR was to ensure, liquidity conditions are “modulated in line with the policy action.”

The company, which has operated primarily in the foods and beverages space, will now get into categories such detergents, home cleaners, body washes and creams and will bank on acquisitions to implement the plan.

"If spot prices continue at similar levels for the next 12 months, then an additional 10% year-on-year price hike would be needed for FY23," he said. The maker of Good Day and Marie biscuits will follow a combination of price hikes, controlled discretionary spends and cost efficiency to tackle inflation.