The Close

The Long Desk

The Close · The Open · The Long Desk · Archive · Research
Fri, 21 Aug 2026
2000 companies · 2294 sector slots · 12 sectors · long-term lens

Trend Spotlight

A broad Q1 FY27 earnings recovery across small and mid-sized banks, including a clean reversal of the JSFB deterioration thesis, is the most substantive news of the session -- even though it's dated and concentrated away from the sector's largest names.

Jana Small Finance Bank's Q1 FY27 profit surged 52% YoY with improving asset quality, directly falsifying the open ledger claim that its Q3 FY26 collapse marked ongoing deterioration -- and the same pattern (profit growth plus stable-to-improving NPAs) shows up at Canara Bank, PNB, Karur Vysya, TMB, South Indian Bank, Karnataka Bank, Suryoday SFB and Dhanlaxmi Bank. For a long-term holder this modestly supports the case that credit-quality worries partly underlying the sector's AVOID stance are not deepening, but the results are dated (mid-July reporting reaching the desk late), skew toward smaller banks rather than the index-weighted majors, and Suryoday's own management still flags ongoing microfinance-sector stress even amid its improved headline numbers.

Market Overview

IndexClosePoints ChangeP/EP/B
Nifty 50 24,252.00 ▲ +20.15 ▲ +0.08% 20.50 2.94
Nifty Next 50 73,992.10 ▼ -202.05 ▼ -0.27% 19.56 3.32
Nifty 500 23,530.30 ▲ +17.35 ▲ +0.07% 22.86 3.29
Nifty Bank 57,761.95 ▲ +266.05 ▲ +0.46% 13.67 1.73
NIFTY Midcap 100 63,735.75 ▲ +64.20 ▲ +0.10% 30.72 4.44
▲ 1300 advancing ■ 53 unchanged ▼ 1271 declining of 2624 equities, vs the 2026-08-20 close
Cash market, ₹ crore
FII / FPI net
▼ -542.71
bought 12,561 · sold 13,104
DII net
▲ +2,124.14
bought 15,259 · sold 13,135

Source: NSE ind_close_all_20260821 (levels, index P/E and P/B) and the full-market bhavcopy (breadth).

Sector performance

This session's index move, next to the desk's standing stance. The stance is a valuation-and-quality reading over years — it does not move because an index had a good day.

SectorIndexSession Idx P/EStance
Metals & Mining Nifty Metal · 3 researched 13,172.60 ▲ +0.86% 16.0 AVOID
Banks Nifty Bank · 11 researched 57,761.95 ▲ +0.46% 13.7 AVOID
Realty Nifty Realty · 2 researched 911.60 ▲ +0.40% 38.7 WATCH
Energy & Power Nifty Energy · 1 researched 38,252.20 ▲ +0.26% 14.8 WATCH
Financial Services Nifty Financial Services · 1 researched 26,261.00 ▲ +0.22% 16.1 WATCH
Pharmaceuticals Nifty Pharma · 7 researched 26,359.75 ▼ -0.21% 40.8 AVOID
Healthcare & Hospitals Nifty Healthcare Index · 8 researched 16,423.90 ▼ -0.25% 43.0 AVOID
Information Technology Nifty IT · 4 researched 30,532.25 ▼ -0.46% 19.5 ACCUMULATE
Hospitality & Tourism Nifty India Tourism · 2 researched 8,007.90 ▼ -0.53% 90.3 WATCH
Automobiles Nifty Auto · 5 researched 29,124.60 ▼ -0.60% 33.8 AVOID
FMCG Nifty FMCG · 3 researched 47,510.95 ▼ -0.74% 33.0 ACCUMULATE

Index P/E from NSE's official daily index file.

Movers in the universe

Largest moves among the 1992 tracked names this session, against the 2026-08-20 close.

CompanyCallPrev CloseMove
Virat Industries Ltd VIRAT AVOID ₹334.75 ₹401.70 ▲ +20.00%
Quadrant Future Tek Ltd QUADFUTURE AVOID ₹337.80 ₹405.35 ▲ +20.00%
Shanthi Gears Ltd SHANTIGEAR HOLD ₹386.90 ₹464.25 ▲ +19.99%
Nandan Denim Ltd NDL AVOID ₹2.26 ₹2.71 ▲ +19.91%
Allcargo Logistics Ltd ALLCARGO AVOID ₹10.51 ₹12.17 ▲ +15.79%
Shah Metacorp Ltd SHAH AVOID ₹3.95 ₹3.33 ▼ -15.70%
Kwality Pharmaceuticals Ltd KPL HOLD ₹3,630.30 ₹3,361.10 ▼ -7.42%
Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd HSCL HOLD ₹704.20 ₹654.40 ▼ -7.07%
KSE Ltd KSE HOLD ₹196.80 ₹183.84 ▼ -6.59%
Elitecon International Ltd ELITECON HOLD ₹16.79 ₹15.70 ▼ -6.49%

Set aside as undetermined: GOODLUCK (▼ -65.90%). A move this large over one session is usually a bonus, split or demerger rather than a price change, and a close-only series cannot tell the two apart — so it is neither listed as a mover nor quietly dropped.

Calls this session

A change to anything but AVOID publishes only after two consecutive sessions say the same thing; AVOID publishes at once.

Published on this close (108)

new
Good business, bad price today (Value 1/5) — PEG 1.74; P/E cheaper than 12% of sector peers (P/E 43.86); EV/EBITDA 28.5, B/M 0.15. Watch for a better entry.
new
Average rating 3.75/5 including quality and value — the rare combination.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 1/5) — PEG 1.41; P/E cheaper than 7% of sector peers (P/E 45.18); EV/EBITDA 31.9, B/M 0.088. Watch for a better entry.
new
Mixed signal (avg 3.67/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 0.79; P/E cheaper than 35% of sector peers (P/E 18.31); B/M 0.371. Watch for a better entry.
new
Average rating 4.0/5 including quality and value — the rare combination.
new
Mixed signal (avg 2.5/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Mixed signal (avg 3.5/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 3.68; P/E cheaper than 41% of sector peers (P/E 40.12); EV/EBITDA 30.4, B/M 0.099. Watch for a better entry.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 3.0; P/E cheaper than 84% of sector peers (P/E 21.03); EV/EBITDA 14.2, B/M 0.16. Watch for a better entry.
new
Mixed signal (avg 3.71/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 1.81; P/E cheaper than 40% of sector peers (P/E 37.91); EV/EBITDA 46.8, B/M 0.114. Watch for a better entry.

and 96 more.

Awaiting a second session (26)

→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 3.67/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 3.67/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 3.5/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 3.33/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ QUALITY-WAIT if it holds
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 1.67; P/E cheaper than 40% of sector peers (P/E 26.38); EV/EBITDA 27.0, B/M 0.15. Watch for a better entry.
→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 3.33/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ QUALITY-WAIT if it holds
Good business, bad price today (Value 1/5) — PEG n/a; P/E cheaper than 22% of sector peers (P/E 42.61); EV/EBITDA 27.1, B/M 0.101. Watch for a better entry.
→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 3.33/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ HOLD if it holds
Mixed signal (avg 2.5/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
→ QUALITY-WAIT if it holds
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 1.14; P/E cheaper than 33% of sector peers (P/E 28.51); EV/EBITDA 10.2, B/M 0.675. Watch for a better entry.
→ QUALITY-WAIT if it holds
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG 4.38; P/E cheaper than 57% of sector peers (P/E 45.52); EV/EBITDA 28.2, B/M 0.216. Watch for a better entry.
→ BUY if it holds
Average rating 4.0/5 including quality and value — the rare combination.

and 14 more.

Top Stories

Jana Small Finance Bank's Q1 FY27 results reverse the Q3 profit-collapse thesis Banks

JSFB's Q1 FY27 (quarter ended June 2026) standalone net profit surged 52.29% YoY to Rs 155.23cr, with NII up 33% to Rs 782cr, NIM expanding to 7.5% from 6.6%, and gross NPA improving to roughly 2.2-2.4% from 2.8% a year earlier. Management guided to 10-12% MFI portfolio growth and 80%+ PAT growth for FY27. This directly falsifies the open ledger claim that the Q3 FY26 collapse (-90.6% YoY profit, 16.6% JLG bad-loan ratio) marked ongoing deterioration -- though the result was reported in mid-July, meaning it had already been public for weeks before this session and simply hadn't been factored into scoring until now.

JSFB
Sources: sahi.com · sahi.com

Q1 FY27 earnings season brings broad-based profit growth and asset-quality gains across small and mid-sized banks Banks

Beyond JSFB, Canara Bank, PNB, Karur Vysya, TMB, South Indian Bank, Karnataka Bank, Suryoday SFB and Dhanlaxmi Bank all posted Q1 FY27 profit growth (roughly 17% to over 200% YoY) with improving or stable gross/net NPA ratios; TMB and Karnataka Bank both raised forward guidance or targets. Suryoday is the exception worth flagging -- despite a 113% PAT jump, management explicitly still calls out ongoing microfinance-sector stress and is cutting unsecured lending as a mitigation step. The pattern is real, but the sample skews toward smaller private/SFB names rather than the sector's larger, index-weighted constituents, and the results themselves are over a month old.

CANBK · PNB · KARURVYSYA · TMB · SOUTHBANK · KTKBANK

Lupin's US price-erosion trough continues on the stated timeline, no recovery signal yet Pharmaceuticals

Management commentary from Lupin's recent earnings calls reiterates that Tolvaptan and Mirabegron generic competition will compress quarterly US revenue to a guided $250-280 million range (down from $315 million) for the next couple of quarters, with recovery still pointed at FY28 via 20+ new launches. This is consistent with, not a change to, the open ledger claim's bounded-dip thesis -- a status update rather than a resolution.

LUPIN

RBI's NBFC revolving-credit draft stays in its comment window; the market has already priced the hit Financial Services

The RBI's draft barring revolving/flexi credit at all but card-authorised NBFCs remains open for feedback until Aug 28, with no final notification yet issued. NBFC stocks, including Bajaj Finance (down roughly 6%, with the wider Bajaj group reportedly losing about Rs 55,000cr in market value per a secondary, unverified source), sold off sharply when the draft was first published on Aug 6-7 -- a reaction that predates this session and suggests the market is already assuming the draft lands close to its current form.

BAJFINANCE · BAJAJFINSV · CHOLAFIN

NCLT hearing on Max Healthcare's Kalinga Hospital dispute adjourned again, to Sept 8 Healthcare & Hospitals

The Cuttack Bench NCLT heard BRS Capital's oppression/mismanagement petition against Max Healthcare's Kalinga Hospital subsidiary on Aug 19 and adjourned it, at the petitioner's own request, to Sept 8 -- the case's latest adjournment, with no ruling on the merits and no reported involvement from Max Healthcare's own management or promoters. A separate procedural order let BRS Capital fix a defective annexure in its bid to block a postal ballot that would raise KHL's borrowing limits, which remains the one still-open question that could constrain KHL's ability to raise capital while the case drags on.

MAXHEALTH

Sector Scorecard

Entry score is 40% cheap-vs-history + 25% quality trend + 20% news catalyst + 15% technicals, for the 4 sectors with a researched catalyst. The other 8 show : no catalyst was researched for them, so their score renormalises over the remaining three inputs rather than assuming a neutral headline. ≥62 accumulate · 45–61 watch · <45 avoid.

SectorStanceEntryCheap QualityTechNews IndexIdx P/EB/W/H/A
Information Technology 10 scanned · 4 researched ACCUMULATE 68.1 61.0 93.2 45.3 ▼ -0.46% 19.5 2/4/4/0
Banks 40 scanned · 11 researched AVOID 40.9 20.1 52.3 64.0 +0 ▲ +0.46% 13.7 10/1/24/5
Pharmaceuticals 20 scanned · 7 researched AVOID 41.9 7.9 75.2 66.7 +0 ▼ -0.21% 40.8 1/9/9/1
Automobiles 15 scanned · 5 researched AVOID 39.5 7.0 76.0 65.4 ▼ -0.60% 33.8 2/6/5/2
FMCG 15 scanned · 3 researched ACCUMULATE 84.7 94.3 94.7 42.2 ▼ -0.74% 33.0 1/7/7/0
Metals & Mining 15 scanned · 3 researched AVOID 44.3 12.9 77.1 73.4 ▲ +0.86% 16.0 4/3/6/2
Realty 10 scanned · 2 researched WATCH 52.5 39.1 60.4 75.2 ▲ +0.40% 38.7 1/2/3/4
Energy & Power 40 scanned · 1 researched WATCH 60.0 60.0 69.2 57.7 +0 ▲ +0.26% 14.8 7/4/15/14
Financial Services 94 scanned · 5 ranked elsewhere · 1 researched WATCH 48.2 58.9 23.1 59.1 +0 ▲ +0.22% 16.1 9/1/63/21
Healthcare & Hospitals 20 scanned · 16 ranked elsewhere · 8 researched AVOID 43.3 13.4 77.9 65.3 ▼ -0.25% 43.0 1/7/11/1
Hospitality & Tourism 15 scanned · 2 researched WATCH 60.2 52.7 71.3 61.6 ▼ -0.53% 90.3 4/4/3/4
Diversified & Other 2000 scanned · 273 ranked elsewhere · 41 researched WATCH 55.4 50.0 62.2 58.6 274/237/881/608

Source: data/verdicts.json × NSE sector index closes.

How We Evaluate

MetricWhy it is in the frameworkSource
Return on capital, level and trendDurable high ROCE predicts future returns; the trend separates a moat from a good year Novy-Marx 2013 JFE
Gross profitability (GP/assets)As predictive as book-to-market, and less prone to the value trap Novy-Marx 2013 JFE
Piotroski F-scoreA nine-signal accounting checklist that separates real improvers from statistically cheap traps Piotroski 2000 JAR
Cash-flow-to-net-profitAccrual-heavy profit reverts; cash-backed profit persists Sloan 1996 TAR
P/E versus the stock's own historyCheap relative to itself, not to a peer set that may be expensive as a whole Basu 1977 JF
Book-to-marketThe value premium, in its original form Fama–French 1992 JF
EV/EBITDACapital-structure-neutral, so it compares a leveraged firm to an unleveraged one Practitioner standard
Altman Z and interest coverageDistressed firms have delivered lower, not higher, returns — screen them out rather than chase them Altman 1968 JF; Campbell/Hilscher/Szilagyi 2008 JF
52-week-high proximity, 200-DMANearness to the high has predicted continuation — but momentum crashes, so never alone George & Hwang 2004 JF; Daniel & Moskowitz 2016 JFE
Promoter pledgePledged promoter holding is a governance red flag ahead of a forced sale Not currently available from either source — no penalty is applied

Full derivation in METHODOLOGY.md.