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Informist, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: IRCTC falls slightly ahead of Oct-Dec earnings
 

MUMBAI--0934 IST--Shares of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. were marginally lower, falling just 0.8% to a low of INR 623.45 ahead of the company's December quarter earnings later in the day. At 0933 IST, shares of the company were at INR 626.25 on the National Stock Exchange, down 0.3% from Wednesday's close.

IRCTC is expected to post a modest on-year rise in its net profit and revenue for the December quarter, according to brokerages. The company's net profit is estimated in the range of INR 3.50 billion-INR 3.65 billion. Estimates on the company were available from only two brokerages with the highest estimate from Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd. and the lowest estimate from Dolat Capital Market Pvt. Ltd.

The company's consolidated revenue is estimated between INR 12.75 billion and INR 13.39 billion. The highest revenue estimate is from Prabhudas Lilladher and the lowest from Dolat Capital.

"We expect online ticketing volumes of ~135mn (million), resulting in convenience fee revenue of Rs 2.6bn (billion) in 3QFY26E. Catering revenue is expected to increase 7.0% YoY to Rs 5.9bn while tourism business is expected to grow by 20.0% YoY to Rs 2.7bn, supported by healthy demand in seasonally strong quarter," according to Prabhudas Lilladher.
 

Dolat Capital will monitor progress in tourism bookings, capacity addition in Rail Neer, uptick in licence fees for catering, and non-convenience fees in ticketing.

 

Prabhudas Lilladher has a 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of INR 840. The company's net profit for the September quarter rose 11% on year to INR 3.42 billion. The top line rose over 8% on year to INR 11.46 billion.  (Gunjan Rajput)

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Equity Alert: Indices seen in range; IT cos may see selling as US peers fall

 

MUMBAI--0830 IST--Benchmark indices are expected to be in range Thursday with the 26000-mark acting as a major hurdle for the Nifty 50. However, the market sentiment remains positive as foreign institutional investors continue to be net buyers in February, according to analysts. Investors will focus on domestic information technology majors after an overnight decline in stocks of software companies amid fears of artificial intelligence tools hurting sales of these companies.

 

Overnight, the American depository receipts of information technology majors Infosys and Wipro dropped over 5% and 4%, respectively. In the US, Anthropic, Palantir, and Altruist have said they are actively integrating AI-related features, which some analysts believe can hurt domestic IT players that are dependent on outsourcing. 

 

The GIFT Nifty 50 indicates a muted start for the Nifty 50. The February contract of the GIFT Nifty was at 25968 points at 0840 IST, up 15 points from the Nifty 50's previous close. On Wednesday, the Nifty 50 index closed almost flat at 25935.15 points. The BSE Sensex also ended flat at 84233.64 points. The Nifty 50 index is gradually scaling towards its price targets of 26150-26200 spot levels following congestion zone breakout above 25850 spot levels, Vipin Kumaar, assistant vice president – technical and derivatives at Globe Capital Market, said. However, lack of follow-through momentum is indicating towards a possible retest, the analyst said.

Investors are set to react to a slew of earnings slated for release later in the day. Fast-moving consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever, metal manufacturer Hindalco Industries, and state-owned Coal India and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. will be on investors' focus. Hindalco's US subsidiary, Novelis, reported a net loss for the December quarter, mainly due to the disruption in production caused by a fire at its aluminium plant at Scriba, Oswego County, New York. 

 

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite closed marginally lower after a better-than-expected jobs report for January cut expectations of an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. The tech-laden NASDAQ Composite was weighed down by a fall in software stocks, which offset gains in stocks of chip-making companies. 

 

Benchmark indices in Asia were mixed in early trade, with equity market in China declining with South Korea's KOSPI leading the gains, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index down nearly 1%. Japan's Nikkei 225 hit 58,000 points for the first time in history, extending its post-election rally to fresh highs, fuelled by renewed confidence in domestic politics and the ruling administration's economic agenda, CNBC reported.  (Eshitva Prakash)

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Equity Alert: Most equity indices in Asia rise; KOSPI, Nikkei hit fresh highs

 

MUMBAI--0811 IST--Equity indices in Asia were mostly higher in early trade, with multiple indices reaching their record highs. The Nikkei 225 was trading lower after reaching fresh highs and the KOSPI continued to rise and reached its all-time high as well. The Hang Seng was lower after ending higher for three consecutive sessions.

 

Japanese indices Nikkei and the Topix First Section hit record highs on optimism over the resounding snap-election victory of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The win gives Takaichi a strong multi-year mandate to execute policy, which is seen as supportive for the country's markets and corporate sector, CNBC reported Global investment firm GMO as saying. Despite equities rising, the country's bond market has come under pressure and risk of intervention could rise if the yen reaches 160 against the dollar, GMO was reported as saying. However, the Nikkei lost it gains and was trading slightly lower, while the Topix First Section managed to stay above its previous day's close. 

 

The KOSPI surpassed 5500 points during the session, with heavyweight Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix rising over 6% and over 3%, respectively. This comes after US-based Micron dismissed concerns about the supply of high-bandwidth memory chips, which is analysed to be influencing stocks of domestic semiconductor companies, The Chosun Daily reported.  

 

The Hang Seng snapped its three-day winning streak ahead of the Lunar New Year due to a fall in technology stocks. This comes after Bejing's market regulator summoned major online platforms to discuss irregularities in the sale of online train tickets ahead of the holidays. These platforms include Trip.com, Meituan, JD.com, Didi, Tencent and other mapping services providers. The market regulator has summoned the companies after complaints from the public over add-on charges and misleading booking charges, the South China Morning Post reported, citing state broadcaster CCTV.

 

Following are the levels of key Asian indices at 0811 IST:

 

INDEX	LEVEL	CHANGE IN %
CSI 300 Index	4716.04	0.05
Hang Seng Index	27077.69	(-)0.69
KOSPI	5494.65	2.62
Nikkei 225 Day	57580.76	(-)0.12
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	3873.95	0.48
FTSE Singapore Straits Times	5008.37	0.48
S&P/ASX 200 Index	9075.70	0.68

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

 

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Equity Alert: US equity indices end lower; Dow Jones snaps 3-day win streak

 

MUMBAI--0734 IST--Equity indices in the US ended flat to lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 staying almost unchanged and the Dow Jones Industrial Average index snapping its three-session winning streak. This came despite better-than-expected non-farm payrolls data for January, which was delayed due to a partial government shutdown, eased tensions over the economy but did indicate that the US Federal Reserve might hold back on rate cuts.

 

The non-farm payrolls data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a job growth of 130,000 in January, CNBC reported. This was significantly higher than the addition of 55,000 jobs estimated by economists polled by Dow Jones and was also higher than 48,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate for the country was at 4.3%, slightly lower than the 4.4% estimated by Dow Jones. However, the growth was restricted within a few sectors, primarily in the healthcare related fields, which saw an addition of 124,000 positions alone, double the growth in 2025. This also comes at a time when every month in 2025 has seen downward revisions. "This is generally a good sign, as you'd expect, but we are certainly not out of the woods yet with respect to the labor market. ‘Moving in the right direction' would be a better description. The unemployment rate is gradually improving, but there are still plenty of signs that the labor market remains exceedingly weak," Rick Wedell, chief investment officer at RFG Advisory was reported as saying.

 

The indices started the session well, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reaching their highest level in more than a week, after the release of the US jobs data. However, indices lost their gains as traders cut back on bets for rate cuts, Reuters reported. Traders are still expecting one 25-basis-point rate cut. However, the probability of rates holding steady for the month rose to 42.4% from 24.8% on Dec. 10, the CME Fedwatch tool showed.

 

Software stocks, which were under pressure last week amid concerns over artificial intelligence disrupting their operations, were lower for the session again, CNBC reported. Shares of Salesforce were down over 4% and those of ServiceNow were down 5.5%. Stocks that would gain from a faster economy, such as shares of companies involved in making AI data centres, were higher. Shares of digital infrastructure company Vertiv Holdings Co. surged 24.5% after its fourth-quarter earnings beat estimates, with the company providing a strong outlook for 2026 as well. Shares of Caterpillar were up over 4?ter Argus Research raised its target price on the stock to $820 from $625, Reuters reported.

 

Following are the closing levels of US indices Wednesday:  

 

Index	Level	Change in %
S&P 500	6941.47	0.00
NASDAQ Composite	23066.47	(-)0.16
Dow Jones Industrial Average	50121.40	(-)0.13

 

(Akshat Saksena)

 

US$1 = INR 90.70

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

All prices from National Stock Exchange, unless otherwise specified.

All percentage changes for share prices are rounded off to the nearest whole number; percentage changes for index values are rounded off to one decimal place.

All times are Indian Standard Time.

 

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