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Informist, Friday, Jul. 31, 2026                                      Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

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Equity Alert: Brokerages up price aim on Bajaj Fin; co's Q1 PAT grows 10% YoY

 

MUMBAI--0856 IST--Multiple brokerages raised their target price on the stock of Bajaj Finance after the company detailed its June quarter earnings on Thursday. The non-banking financial company reported a near 28% on-year jump in its net profit at INR 59.86 billion on revenues of INR 231.65 billion, which rose 20% on the year. 

 

Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities raised its target price on the stock by 2% to INR 1250 and maintained its "buy" recommendation on the stock. The company's 24% on-year assets under management growth continues to demonstrate its strong market leadership, according to the brokerage. The company's artificial intelligence initiatives are expected to fuel the management's ambition to reach a book of INR 10 trillion. "With pristine operating metrics and strong asset quality, we expect BAF to outperform the rest of its peers comfortably," the brokerage said in its research report.

 

Nuvama Institutional Equities retained its "hold" recommendation on the stock with a revised target price of INR 1,175 per share, representing an upside of nearly 12% from the current market price. The company's diversified portfolio and proactive risk management position it well to navigate emerging macro and asset-quality risks while delivering 4.1% return on return and 20–21% return on equity over financial year 2026-27 (Apr-Mar)–FY29. The brokerage finds near-term comfort in the reinstatement of Rajeev Jain as managing director till March 2028, which had pushed back the top management reset.

 

Factoring in the lender's June quarter performance and management commentary, Emkay Global Financial Services adjusted its FY27-FY29 estimates and increased its earnings per share view by 3–4%. The brokerage reiterated its "reduce" recommendation on the stock and target price by 5% to INR 1,050 from INR 1,000. (Shruti Nair)

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Equity Alert: Cost inflation a key concern for M&M in FY27, analysts say

 

MUMBAI--0845 IST--Mahindra & Mahindra's revenue and profit for the June quarter beat the Street's expectations even as total expenses surged due to lofty commodity prices. Rising raw material inflation continues to the major hurdle for the company in 2026-27 (Apr-Mar) though demand is not a concern, according to analysts. Brokerages maintained their recommendations on the stock.

 

M&M's sales from its auto segment are likely to grow at a compounded annual rate of 16% with demand for key models and new launches driving growth, Nuvama Institutional Equities said. Its revenue from the farm revenue is expected to expand by a moderate 4% at a compounded annual rate over FY26–28 owing a higher base. The company had transferred its Mahindra Trucks & Buses division to its subsidiary SML Mahindra and this is should support greater scale and faster product development, Nuvama said. M&M plans to expand its battery electric vehicle portfolio and the brokerages expects the company's car volumes in this segment to be 90,000 in FY27 and 122,000 in FY28. The brokerage retained its 'buy' stance on the stock and revised its target price to INR 3,900 from INR 3,800.

 

The management of M&M expects its margins in the auto segment to be steady or improve slightly due to volatile macroeconomic conditions, Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. noted. The margin of its farm business, however, may continue to see some pressure owing to high steel and rubber prices. Factoring in this commodity inflation, the brokerage cut its earnings per share estimates for the company by 2-4% for FY27 and FY28. Emkay Global retained its 'buy' call on the stock with a target price of INR 4,100.

 

Accounting for high raw material inflation, Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities also lowered its FY27 growth estimates for the company even as it expects M&M's sports utility vehicles to grow at a strong pace. The company's tractors and light commercial vehicles are expected to see healthy volume growth. The brokerage maintained its 'buy' stance on the stock with a target price of INR 4,537.

 

The automaker's bottom line grew at a slowest pace in eight quarters by about 7% on year to INR 36.85 billion. Its revenue was up 23% at INR 419.59 billion. The company's operating margin for the June quarter contracted to 12.27% from 14.05% in the corresponding quarter a year ago. On Thursday, shares of the company closed about 2% higher at INR 3,283.70 on the NSE.  (Ruchira Kagita)

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Equity Alert: Indices seen higher for third day; Q1 results in focus

 

MUMBAI--0840 IST--Headline equity indices are expected to open higher Friday, extending gains for a third straight session, tracking early gains in most Asian equity indices. Brent crude oil prices also eased slightly to the low of $88 a barrel. Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, and Maruti Suzuki will be tracked as these Nifty 50 companies are scheduled to announce their June quarter earnings later in the day.

 

At 0842 IST, the August futures contract of GIFT Nifty was at 24419.50, marginally higher from Thursday's close. This was over 100 points higher than the Nifty 50's previous close of 24317.15, which suggested a higher opening for the market Friday. Nirav Harish Chheda of Nirmal Bang expects the market to remain positive in the near term, with 24500–24800 likely to come. He expects the Nifty 50 to find support at 24000 level. "Going ahead, a decisive close above 24400 could lead it towards 24600 spot levels, which is also the upper band resistance of the past one-and-a-half-month-long consolidation range," Vipin Kumar, assistant vice president of research at Globe Capital Market, said. "Conversely, sustained trading below 24100 spot levels could drag it back to 23800 and lower levels in the near term."

 

Shares of Tata Steel will be in focus as the company reported its June quarter earnings Thursday post-market hours. The steel company posted a 12% on-year rise in its consolidated net profit at INR 23.18 billion. However, this would mean a decline of almost 21% sequentially. Its revenue from operations grew over 14% on year, but declined nearly 4% sequentially to INR 607.94 billion.

 

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is expected to post a consolidated net profit of INR 29.8 billion for the reporting quarter, down nearly 4% from a year ago. Its revenue is estimated at over INR 155.3 billion, up 12% on year. Maruti Suzuki India is likely to report net profit of INR 32.2 billion, down 13% on year. The automobile major's revenue from operations is expected at INR 525.2 billion, up 37% on year. ITC is expected to report net profit of INR 45 billion, which would mean a decline of 9% on year and a 13% on quarter, for the June quarter. Its revenue is expected to fall over 5% on year, but rise 16% sequentially to nearly INR 187 billion.

 

South Korea's KOSPI gained significantly during early trade, up over 13%. The Nikkei 225 Day was up over 4%. All three major US indices closed higher Thursday with gains in semiconductor stocks due to a 15% jump in Microsoft, coupled with double-digit gains in other technology stocks.  (Arundathi A R)

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Equity Alert: Asian markets open higher, boosted by a 23% jump in SK Hynix

 

MUMBAI--0800 IST--Indices in Asia opened higher Friday led by gains in technology stocks which took cues from the gains in US technology stocks. South Korea's Samsung Electronics jumped more than 19% and SK Hynix rose nearly 23%. This took the region's benchmark Kospi up more than 13%. Japan's Advantest soared more than 17% and Tokyo Electron jumped 7%. The SoftBank Group rose more than 15%. This took the Nikkei 225 nearly 5% higher. The broad market Topix rose around 2%. 

 

This follows the rise in US technology stocks. Microsoft and Amazon posted large gains Thursday after reporting better-than-expected earnings. "Both the earnings as well as the sentiment are kind of coming back a bit after the really overexaggerated move in the earlier part of the week," Reuters quoted Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG as saying. "The AI demand story didn't really decelerate, it seems like it's still sustainable. So the selloff that we saw... is maybe the market overreacting to some of those concerns around (capex spending)."

 

Other technology stocks in the region which posted gains were Disco, Lasertec, and Renesas Electronics. Semiconductor manufacturers Disco and Lasertec rose nearly 13?ch. Renesas Electronics rose more than 7%.

 

The Bank of Japan is likely to keep interest rates steady at its meeting. The BoJ is expected to keep short-term interest rates steady at 1?ter it raised rates in June, Reuters reported. The BoJ is also expected to keep the borrowing costs higher after it conducted a yen-buying and dollar-selling session in New York Thursday to push the yen away from its four-decade low.

 

Following are the levels of key indices in the region at 0758 IST:

 

Index	Level	Change in %
Nikkei 225 Day	64916.99	4.9
TOPIX FIRST SECTION	4026.29	1.9
S&P/ASX 200 Index	8980.80	0.2
KOSPI Index	6353.16	13.6
Hang Seng Index	25733.25	(-)0.5
CSI 300 Index	4624.26	1.6
FTSE Singapore Strait Times	5612.60	(-)1.1

 

(Deesha Jadhav)

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Equity Alert: US markets close higher, Microsoft leads tech stock gains

 

MUMBAI--0715 IST--Major US indices ended higher Thursday led by gains in semiconductor stocks fuelled by a 15% jump in Microsoft accompanied by double-digit gains in other technology stocks such as Advanced Micro Devices, Sandisk, and Micron Technology. These gains outpaced the fall in Meta, Qualcomm, and Apple. Meta fell nearly 8?ter it reported a 91?ll in free cash flow in the June quarter.

 

Microsoft rose sharply after its forecast for quarterly sales came in above expectations and it reported lower than estimated capital expenditure. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed nearly 3% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 1% higher and the S&P 500 closed nearly 2% higher.

 

"These are true battleground stocks. Investors can't make up their minds whether the ROI on the massive capex spending is going to be worthwhile or not," Reuters quoted Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management as saying. "Microsoft delivered yesterday, and maybe Microsoft is going to be able to move itself from the 'battleground' camp to be a 'trusted AI winner' stock."

 

US GDP growth slowed to 1.5% in the June quarter from 2.1% a quarter ago and was below economists' expectations. US bond yields rose, but traders are now expecting only a 59% chance that the US Federal Reserve will raise rates in September, down from 82% a week ago, Reuters reported.

 

Following are the levels of major US indices Thursday:

 

Index	Level	Change in %
Dow Jones Industrial Average	52208.06	1.2
NASDAQ Composite	25122.18	2.8
S&P 500	7437.63	1.7

 

(Deesha Jadhav)

 

US$1 = INR 95.68

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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