Tale of the Tape 

Good evening ya’ll!

Markets continued their gaining streak today as lingering enthusiasm over India’s GST cuts rubbed off on the Nifty (+0.4%) and Sensex (+0.5%). Trump’s meeting with European leaders ended on a cautiously optimistic note, but it’s anyone’s guess on whether India will face 50% tariffs next week. The joy spread to broader markets as well, with Midcaps (+1%) and Smallcaps (+0.7%) seeing strong buying. A cool 362 stocks in the NSE 500 ended higher.

Except Pharma (-0.3%), every other sector ended in the green. Oil & Gas (+1.7%) and Auto (+1.3%) stocks saw the most gains.

In today’s issue of the Daily Rip, we review the Q1 earnings season, analyse Patel Retail’s IPO, trending stocks and more.

Honourable mentions: 

Reliance Industries (+3%) was in focus after increasing its base tariff plan to Rs 299 per month. Vedanta (+3%) will consider the proposal of a second interim dividend on August 21.

Check out the NSE 500 heatmap:

Market
Q1 Earnings Report Card

The Q1 earnings season has wrapped up. Coming into the quarter, there were major expectations of a turnaround in corporate earnings. But tbh, it’s been a mixed bag. Here’s the Q1 report card.

Fun fact: this was the fifth-consecutive quarter of single-digit earnings growth for the Nifty 50. That means the slowdown has been in effect for over a year now, which sucks. Nifty’s PAT growth of 8% YoY did beat Street estimates of +5%, but that’s really nothing to celebrate. Oil & Gas, NBFCs, PSU Banks and Cement companies were among the top performers, while auto and IT sectors underperformed. Honourable mention: FMCG firms staged a decent comeback after a weak FY25.

FYI -  the top FY26E earnings upgrades in the quarter were Tata Consumer (9.7%), Apollo Hospitals (6.5%), Eicher Motors (3.8%) and Hero MotoCorp (3.5%). On the flipside, the biggest downgrades included Eternal (-35.5%), Axis Bank (-8.7%) and Sun Pharma (-5.1%).

In case you were wondering, the pain was spread across the market. 107 firms in the BSE Midcap reported their weakest topline growth in three quarters. And a whopping 917 companies in the BSE Smallcap posted their slowest PAT growth in six quarters.

Having said that, there are some encouraging signs. For example, the pace of earnings downgrades slowed down compared to previous quarters. And most analysts say Nifty EPS growth should hit +9% in FY26 (vs just 1% YoY). But one thing is crystal clear, demand simply hasn’t come back just yet.

Big Picture: Most of the Q1 profit growth came from input cost tailwinds, which is good but shows we’re still far off from a structural recovery. What we need is topline growth. The good news is that we should get GST cuts by October and interest rates are at 2022-levels, which sets us up for a solid FY26. fingers crossed.

Specials
Ashish Kacholia Portfolio Changes

With ₹2,600+ Cr across more than 40 stocks, Ashish Kacholia’s portfolio is full of interesting picks. In our latest video, we dive into his top holdings, new stock picks, and major portfolio changes this quarter.