Tale of the Tape 

Good evening boys and girls. What a crazy week. 

Markets closed at the lowest point since June 18! FYI - we are very much in a correction zone (down 10% from the all-time highs). Yikes! Concerns over slowing economic growth, never-ending FII selling and a weak rupee have dented sentiment. Midcaps (-2.1%) and Smallcaps (-2.6%) got KO-ed with 429 stocks closing in the red on NSE500. 

Except for IT (+3.4%), all the other sectors closed down. Real Estate (-2.8%), PSU Banks (-2.7%) and Pharma (-2%) got beat up the most. 

TCS kicked off the Q3 earnings season with a meh set of results. Yet, the stock jumped +6% intraday. More details below. 

Laxmi Dental’s Rs 698 cr IPO opens for subscription on Monday. Check out our detailed analysis on whether you should apply or not. 

Indian Rupee hit a new all-time low of Rs 85.97 against the US dollar.  

Adani Wilmar was locked in a 10% lower circuit. The Adani Group will sell its entire 20% stake via the OFS route. 

Results reaction. IREDA and Tata Elxsi fell 6%-7% each after their Q3 results missed estimates. 

IndusInd Bank tanked -4% after a double downgrade by Goldman Sachs. 

IT stocks marched higher tracking the gains in TCS. LTI Mindtree, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech gained 3%-5% each. 

Shriram Finance dropped -5% after turning ex-split. Shareholders will now have 5 shares for every one share held.

Delta Corp rose +4% after the Supreme Court issued a stay order on the Rs 16,195 cr tax order from the GST department.

Here are the closing prints:

Stock
TCS Hopes For A Better 2025

TCS rallied +6% intraday despite what many would describe as meh results. Here’s why? For starters, TCS believes that the worst is behind them and demand should pick up in 2025. Strong growth in the Generative AI, semiconductor and cloud segments may fuel this growth. 

This is evident from its deal wins that rebounded 19% QoQ to an insane $10.2 billion in Q3. PS - this does not include the massive BSNL deal, which makes it even more impressive. 

Consequently, they’ve kept their margin target intact at 26%-28%, which is a big positive. To top it off they announced a special dividend of Rs 66 p/sh! Here are its key stats for those interested: 

• Revenue: $7.54 billion; -1.7% QoQ (Est: $7.62 billion)

• EBIT: Rs 15,657 cr; +1.2% QoQ (Est: Rs 15,764 cr) 

• EBIT Margin: 24.5% vs 24.1% QoQ (Est: 24.5%)

• PAT: Rs 12,444 cr; Flat (Est: 12,354 cr) 

Big Picture: IT stocks had a rough 2024 but things may be on the road to recovery. Interest rate cuts in the US plus Trump in the White House does give hope. Not to mention the relentless weakness in the Indian Rupee against USD $. Don’t believe us? Just ask CLSA who’ve upgraded TCS and increased their target price to Rs 4,546 p/sh.

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