Tale of the Tape 

Howdy folks. A Donald Trump victory supercharged Indian markets today!!

Nifty (+1.1%) and Sensex (+1.2%) opened gap-up and steadily gained throughout the day as a Republican sweep became clear. Midcaps and Smallcaps also popped off, up +2.2% each. 425 stocks in the NSE 500 ended in the green!

It was a sea of green across sectors as well. Check out our chart section below to find out why IT (+4%) stocks led today’s rally. Other sectors that posted solid gains include Real Estate (+2.6%) and Oil & Gas (+2.5%).

Titan bucked the market trend and fell due to its disappointing Q2 numbers. Meanwhile, Granules India was up despite weak Q2 results. More details below.

ACME Solar Holdings IPO kicked off today. Check out our analysis below to help you decide whether to invest.

Order wins. Polycab gained +4% after emerging as the L1 bidder for a Rs 4,099 cr project from BSNL. RVNL was up +4% after becoming the lowest bidder for a Bengaluru rail project.

Hindustan Zinc cracked -8% as the GOI’s offer for sale for a 2.5% stake kicked off today. PS - the floor price was at a nearly 10% discount to Friday’s close.

Cyient DLM rallied +4% intraday after inking a pact with Honeywell Aerospace for aircraft cooling solutions.

Results reaction. Raymond Lifestyle (-8%) nosedived after its Q2 PAT dropped -70% YoY. Meanwhile, Gail India jumped +6% on a Jefferies upgrade despite a Q2 miss.

SpiceJet (+2%) was in focus after announcing a further expansion to its domestic flight network.

Here are the closing prints:

Earnings
Earnings Roundup

Titan (-2%) Q2 results missed Street estimates! The jewelry king was hit by a double-edged sword this quarter. Demand as a whole was decent, with its core jewelry biz growing +26% YoY on the back of custom duty cuts. This resulted in a double-digit jump in the topline. FYI - revenue still missed expectations as it was impacted by softness in large-size solitaire sales. 

On the flipside, the customs duty cut also took a big chunk out of its operating margins and hit its profitability. But experts say even if you exclude the inventory losses, margins were still down YoY, which indicates stiff competition + reduced pricing power. PS - this is why Titan cut its jewellery EBIT margin guidance to 11-11.5% for FY25 vs 11.5-12.5% earlier.

Here is its Q2 report card:

• Revenue: Rs 13,215 cr; +13% YoY (vs Est: Rs 13,520 cr)

• EBITDA: Rs 1,133 cr; -16% YoY (vs Est: Rs 1,435 cr)

• EBITDA Margin: 8.6% vs 11.6% YoY

• PAT: Rs 705 cr; -25% YoY (vs Est: Rs 990 cr)

FWIW - analysts are divided. Jefferies has cut its target price to Rs 3,400 p/sh vs Rs 3,600 p/sh earlier, citing poor margin guidance as a key factor. CLSA on the other hand hiked its target to Rs 4,221 p/sh vs Rs 3,948 earlier, pointing to strong growth in watches and Titan’s ability to create high-quality jewellery. Check out the Stocktwits Sentiment Meter:

Granules India (+5%) posted a weak set of Q2 results. A demand slump in Europe and North American markets resulted in a blow to its topline. PS - its Europe biz, which traditionally accounts for 18% of its overall topline, crashed by -57% YoY. Finally, a voluntary pause at its Gagillapur facility due to regulatory issues + high customer inventory didn’t help overall revenue either.

On the flipside, greater sales of higher-margin products + reduced raw material costs did help bump up margins. But even this couldn’t help pull its bottomline.

If the Q2 numbers were bad, why did the stock end up +5%? Its partly because these results were priced in - FYI, the stock is down -10% from mid-October. It’s also because general market sentiment is pretty positive.

Here are its key stats:

• Revenue: Rs 967 cr; -19% YoY

• EBITDA: Rs 203 cr; -5% YoY

• EBITDA Margin: 21% vs 17.9%

• PAT: Rs 97 cr; -5% YoY

Granules India is +40% YTD.

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