Category: News

TVS Motor Company extended its rally for a second straight session on January 29, soaring 9% to hit a three-week high of ₹2,539. The stock continued its upward momentum after brokerages reiterated their positive outlook despite the company reporting a Q3 profit that missed estimates. While two-wheeler sales grew at their slowest pace in over a year, TVS’s improved operating metrics fueled optimism. On Tuesday, the stock ended 5% higher post-earnings, and analysts remain confident in its long-term prospects. Macquarie maintained an ‘Outperform’ rating with a target price of ₹2,857, citing a modest EBITDA beat driven by stronger gross margins. JP Morgan echoed this optimism, keeping an ‘Overweight’ stance with a target of ₹3,130. Domestic brokerage Nuvama Institutional Equities retained its ‘Buy’ rating, projecting the company’s domestic market share to rise from 17% in FY24 to 18% by FY27, aided by margin expansion and PLI incentives. TVS Motor has steadily gained ground in both domestic and international markets, increasing its domestic two-wheeler share from 15% in FY19 to 17% in FY24. The company’s diverse product lineup—including Jupiter, Ntorq, iQube, and Raider—has driven consistent growth.

Small-cap defense player Apollo Micro Systems surged nearly 6% in intraday trade on January 29 after securing a new order from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The stock opened at ₹120.10 on the BSE and spiked to an intraday high of ₹125.80, reflecting a 5.8% jump from its previous close of ₹118.95. By 11:40 AM, it was trading 3.61% higher at ₹123.25. The rally was fueled by the company’s post-market announcement on January 28, confirming its selection as the lowest bidder (L1) for DRDO orders worth ₹7.37 crore. Securing the L1 position typically guarantees the contract. This follows a previous DRDO order in November, when Apollo also landed contracts worth ₹4.65 crore from DRDO and Adani. Additionally, in December, the company bagged orders worth ₹21.42 crore from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and a private firm. Beyond contract wins, Apollo is set to release its Q3 earnings on February 4. The company also approved a capital infusion through preferential shares at ₹114 per share, increasing its paid-up capital from ₹36 crore to ₹45 crore, with ₹3.34 crore allocated via preferential issuance. Despite a lackluster year, Apollo Micro Systems has staged a comeback, gaining 7% in January after a 15% rise in December. The stock hit a 52-week low of ₹88.10 on October 23 but rebounded to ₹157 on January 21. As per the latest shareholding data, promoters hold a 55.12% stake, while non-institutional investors own 43.28%.

ITC Hotels stumbled on its stock market debut on January 29, listing at a steep discount after its demerger from parent company ITC Ltd. The shares opened at ₹188 on the BSE, marking a 30.37% drop from the discovered price of ₹270, while on the NSE, they debuted at ₹180, down 30.77% from ₹260. The downward momentum continued post-listing, with ITC Hotels hitting the 5% lower circuit at ₹178.60. The demerger, executed at a 1:10 ratio, granted ITC shareholders one ITC Hotels share for every ten ITC shares held. ITC Ltd retains a 40% stake, while the remaining 60% is distributed among shareholders. Analysts at DevenChoksey Research do not foresee a significant uplift in ITC Ltd’s value post-demerger, as its stock price adjusts for the holding company discount. Following the separation, the brokerage revised its ITC Ltd target price from ₹534 to ₹520, citing adjustments in the hotel segment’s valuation. Strategically, the demerger is positioned to unlock value by enabling ITC Ltd to concentrate on its core high-margin businesses, while ITC Hotels gains independence to tap into industry growth and attract investors.

Tata Motors posted a 22.5% drop in consolidated net profit for the December quarter, coming in at ₹5,578 crore—a sharp decline from the ₹7,415 crore it reported a year ago. Margins took a hit, dragging overall performance despite strong numbers from its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) segment. On the bright side, sequentially, the company saw a 62% jump in profit from ₹3,450 crore in the September quarter. Revenue ticked up 2.7% year-on-year to ₹1.13 lakh crore, but operating performance faltered. EBITDA fell nearly 15% to ₹13,081 crore, with margins narrowing to 13.7%. JLR continued its stellar run, hitting record quarterly revenue, the highest EBIT margin in a decade, and notching its ninth straight profitable quarter. The unit raked in £7.5 billion in revenue, but EBITDA margins tightened by 200 basis points to 14.2%. The commercial vehicle business struggled, with revenue sliding 8.4% to ₹18,431 crore. Yet, cost savings and incentives helped lift EBITDA margins to 12.4%. Passenger vehicle revenue also dipped 4.3% year-on-year, but efficiency measures pushed EBITDA margins up to 7.8%. Despite macroeconomic pressures, Tata Motors remains upbeat about hitting its FY25 profitability and cash flow targets. With an EBIT margin goal of at least 8.5% and a focus on maintaining positive net cash, the company is banking on its cost-cutting strategies and incentives to fuel long-term growth.

London’s bullion market is heating up as traders rush to borrow gold from central banks, stretching the Bank of England’s wait times for withdrawals to a rare four-week delay. Normally, it takes just days to get gold out of the BoE, but a surge in shipments to the US—driven by speculation over potential import tariffs—has tightened liquidity, two sources revealed. While President Trump hasn’t signaled any plans for tariffs on precious metals, the mere possibility has sparked a flood of gold deliveries to New York. Some traders are hedging their COMEX positions, while others are capitalizing on the widening price gap between London spot prices and US futures. Over the past two months, 12.2 million troy ounces of gold landed in COMEX-approved warehouses, pushing stocks to a two-year high of 29.8 million ounces. The rush has drained the so-called Loco London free float—the bullion available for OTC trading—since much of London’s stored gold belongs to central banks or exchange-traded funds. Robert Gottlieb, a former precious metals head at Koch Supply and Trading, pointed out that the BoE isn’t built to handle this level of commercial borrowing, intensifying the supply squeeze. Liquidity issues aren’t confined to London. According to traders, moving vast amounts of gold across borders—especially from Europe to the US—is creating ripple effects worldwide. Even in Asia, markets like Singapore and Hong Kong are feeling the strain, as logistics hurdles amplify the pressure in an already tight market.

Adani Power lit up Dalal Street on Wednesday, with its stock surging over 5% to ₹523.40 after posting a steady 7.38% year-on-year rise in net profit for Q3FY25, hitting ₹2,940 crore. While profits dipped 10.8% sequentially, the company’s revenue edged up 5.23% YoY to ₹13,671 crore, driven by operational resilience despite softer merchant tariffs and lower coal import prices. EBITDA surged 23.5% to ₹6,185 crore, though quarterly growth slowed compared to the first nine months of FY25. The company remains bullish on scaling up, with CEO S B Khyalia reaffirming its goal of crossing 30 GW in generation capacity by 2030. With ongoing projects progressing rapidly, a secured supply chain, and long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) in place, Adani Power is positioning itself to tap into India’s rising energy demand. On the financial front, the company is supercharging its war chest, doubling its Non-Convertible Debenture (NCD) fundraising limit to ₹11,000 crore while greenlighting ₹5,000 crore via a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP). Investors welcomed the move, fueling optimism about future expansion.

CarTrade Tech just floored the accelerator, with its stock jumping 9% in Wednesday’s trading session to hit ₹1,489, thanks a stellar Q3FY25 performance. After reporting a net loss a year ago, the company flipped the script with a ₹45.33 crore profit this quarter, marking its best numbers ever across all three business segments. The consumer group led the charge with a 38% revenue boost and a stunning 172% jump in PAT. The remarketing business wasn’t far behind, raking in 28% more revenue and 178% PAT growth. In total, CarTrade Tech pulled in ₹193 crore in revenue—up 27% YoY—with EBITDA nearly doubling to ₹50 crore and margins expanding by a solid 1,000 basis points. The company isn’t just winning on paper. Its digital reach is massive, with 79 million unique visitors each month, mostly organic, and a growing physical presence in over 450 locations. Investors who got in early are sitting on serious gains. From its March 2023 levels of ₹389, CarTrade Tech’s stock has skyrocketed 268%, and from its all-time low of ₹340, it’s up an eye-watering 321%. With a strong grip on the digital automotive marketplace and an expanding footprint, this rally may have more fuel left in the tank.

For the fifth consecutive session, CG Power & Solutions took another sharp dip, with its share price plummeting over 12% on Tuesday, down to ₹517.75 from a starting point of ₹599. It’s a clear sign that selling pressure is mounting, and investors are starting to feel uneasy. With ₹489 crore in trading volume and a total of 93.43 lakh shares shifting hands on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), it’s hard to ignore the weight of the downward trend. By midday, trading activity had already surged to a staggering ₹666.34 crore, with a total volume of 121.75 lakh shares. Despite the company’s solid fundamentals and a market cap of ₹84,119.85 crore, CG Power’s stock has been riding a rollercoaster over the past year, fluctuating between ₹420 and ₹874.50. The latest drop isn’t just about the stock’s volatility—it’s tied to a mix of sector-wide weakness and broader market turbulence, with profit booking and investor jitters playing a role. Rising raw material costs, especially for copper and aluminum, are also hitting the company’s bottom line hard. The economic instability and slow-moving project approvals have taken a toll on CG Power’s revenue growth, leading to a 25.77% drop year-to-date. Over the past six months, the stock has shed 24.91%, and in the last three months, it’s down 22.75%. While the company’s net profit took an 8.8% hit in the September quarter, reaching ₹221 crore, the pain doesn’t end there. Its EBITDA slid 4.6% year-on-year, coming in at ₹294.7 crore.

The Chinese AI startup, which has been quietly working on its AI models since 2023, shocked investors this weekend when its DeepSeek R1 chatbot app rocketed to the top of global download charts. In the blink of an eye, it wiped out a staggering $108 billion from the combined fortunes of the world’s 500 wealthiest individuals. Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang bore the brunt of this hit, seeing his net worth drop by a sharp 20%, or $20.1 billion, as the tech sector reeled from the news. In the world of AI and big data, where billions are often thrown at developing cutting-edge systems, DeepSeek’s low-budget, $5.6 million R1 app challenged the idea that massive capital was required to build the most advanced models. Oracle’s Larry Ellison lost $22.6 billion—though, in relative terms, that was a smaller hit to his fortune. Others were similarly impacted: Michael Dell saw $13 billion vanish from his pocket, and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao lost $12.1 billion. In total, tech billionaires took a beating to the tune of $94 billion, nearly 85% of the overall drop among the richest. Stocks took a hit, too—the Nasdaq tumbled 3.1%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.5%. Though companies like Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft have raked in billions from AI, their own pricey investments haven’t translated into profits just yet. The tech giants, who’ve spent colossal sums to race ahead in AI, are now forced to contend with a startup that’s offering similar results on a shoestring budget.

ACC’s stock continued its downward spiral for a second day, dipping 1.3% on January 28 to ₹1,968 per share. From a high of ₹2,028 earlier in the session, the stock lost 3%, extending Monday’s weakness after the release of its Q3 financials. Despite the slip, ACC reported remarkable growth in the quarter, fueled by one-time gains such as a ₹640 crore excise duty refund and a ₹530 crore interest provision reversal. Brokerage firms remain divided on the stock’s outlook. CLSA reaffirmed its ‘Outperform’ rating with a target price of ₹2,580, while Nomura stuck to its ‘Reduce’ rating, citing a target of ₹1,920. Other firms like Investec and Morgan Stanley issued ‘Hold’ and ‘Equal Weight’ ratings, with targets of ₹2,845 and ₹2,510, respectively. ACC posted a consolidated net profit of ₹1,091 crore for Q3FY25, more than doubling last year’s ₹538 crore, and surging 446.8% sequentially. Revenue climbed 7.25% YoY to ₹5,207 crore—its best Q3 revenue in five years—driven by an 11% rise in trade sales and a 32% contribution from premium products. However, adjusted figures told a more sobering story. Excluding one-offs, EBITDA plunged 48% YoY to ₹470 crore, and PAT fell 57% to ₹230 crore. Operational efficiencies were a silver lining. ACC reduced kiln fuel costs by 10%, thanks to synergies with Adani group companies, and trimmed logistics expenses by 9%. The company also improved its fuel mix by incorporating low-cost imported petcoke and optimizing coal consumption. EBITDA margins slightly improved to 18.8% from 18.4% a year ago.