Tale of the Tape 

Hiya everyone. 

Nifty and Sensex closed in the red for a sixth straight day! PS - Nifty closed below the 200-day moving average for the first time since March 2023! Midcaps (+0.5%) and Smallcaps (+0.8%) finally had a green day. The advance-decline ratio was in favour of the bulls (3:2).

It was a mixed-bag kinda day for sectors. Real Estate (+1%) and Auto (+0.7%) saw the most buying. FMCG (-1.5%) and PSU Banks (-0.7%) witnessed the most selling.

Healthcare stocks have provided some much needed cover during the recent market correction. Read our top story on why hospitals and diagnostic chains have been killing it.

Eicher Motors was the top Nifty gainer after analysts cheered its future outlook. Meanwhile, HAL had a decent Q2 show. More details below.

SKF India, Torrent Power and Shilpa Medicare all saw big movements today. Check out their charts below to find out why.

Zomato gained +4% after the NSE included it in its F&O list alongwith 44 other stocks. Check out the full list here. 

Allied Blenders (+2%) was in focus after Antique initiated coverage on the stock; the brokerage sees a +29% upside from current levels.

Niva Bupa Health Insurance had a disappointing market debut, ending the day flat and unchanged from its IPO price of Rs 74 p/sh.

Varun Beverages gained +5% intraday after launching a Rs 7,500 cr QIP.

Agro Tech Foods cracked -7% after acquiring Del Monte Foods in a Rs 1,300 cr share swap deal.

SpiceJet was up +3% after settling a Rs 763 cr dispute with Canada’s EDC, allowing it to acquire 13 aircraft.

Here are the closing prints:

Stock
What’s Popping?

Hospital and diagnostic stocks have been killing it! ICYMI - stocks like Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Vijaya Diagnostics and KIMS have easily beaten the Nifty over the last year and also escaped the recent market correction. So WTF is going on? Let’s take a look.

1) Structural story: Experts say a major health insurance push should boost spending to the sector. This comes from the GOI --  which recently expanded Ayushman Bharat to over 70+ aged people -- and private sector growth. Many hospital chains are also in the middle of a big brownfield + greenfield capex drive. Apollo alone is set to commission six new projects by FY26, which will add 1,400 beds to its overall count. Finally a lot of key structural factors picked up in the last two years including higher healthcare awareness post Covid, combined with more lifestyle diseases. 

2) Pricing pressures: Diagnostic stocks kinda sputtered out after a Covid boom. But experts now see 9% CAGR growth over next four years. Price wars also stopped in H12024, with many players hiking rates by 3%-6%, which should result in a minimum +3% topline growth. As Centrum Broking’s Sumit Gupta notes: “Over the last one year, if you see incumbents like Dr Lal, Metropolis, they have improved their profitability in terms of volume growth as well as the pricing growth.”

3) Non-cyclical: One of the biggest factors for their recent outperformance is that healthcare is the CLASSIC non-cyclical industry. People will spend on healthcare no matter what. Doesn’t matter if the urban middle-class is hurting, they will spend to take care of their loved ones. Which is why even when inflation is spiking & economic growth is slowing, hospitals are still KILLING it in quarterly earnings.

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