No news narrative was written for this session, so this is the largest sector index move rather than a judged catalyst. The desk's stance for this sector is AVOID, which is a valuation-and-quality reading and does not move with one session.
| Index | Close | Points | Change | P/E | P/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 |
Source: NSE ind_close_all_20260821
(levels, index P/E and P/B) and the full-market bhavcopy (breadth).
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.
| Sector | Index | Session | Idx P/E | Stance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metals & Mining Nifty Metal · 3 researched | 13,172.60 | ▲ +0.86% | 16.0 | AVOID |
| Banks Nifty Bank · 3 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 | ACCUMULATE |
| 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 · 7 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.
Largest moves among the 1992 tracked names this session, against the 2026-08-20 close.
| Company | Call | Prev | Close | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
A change to anything but AVOID publishes only after two consecutive sessions say the same thing; AVOID publishes at once.
and 96 more.
and 12 more.
No narrative was written for this session. Stories, and the news catalyst input to the sector stances, come from the morning research agent; when it has not run, the stances below renormalise over their three remaining inputs rather than assuming a neutral headline.
Entry score is 40% cheap-vs-history + 25% quality trend + 15% technicals, renormalised over those three — the 20% news catalyst is not counted because no research was written for this session. It is not treated as neutral; it is absent. ≥62 accumulate · 45–61 watch · <45 avoid.
| Sector | Stance | Entry | Cheap | Quality | Tech | News | Index | Idx P/E | B/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 · 3 researched | AVOID | 38.4 | 20.1 | 52.3 | 64.0 | — | ▲ +0.46% | 13.7 | 10/1/24/5 |
| Pharmaceuticals 20 scanned · 7 researched | AVOID | 39.9 | 7.9 | 75.2 | 66.7 | — | ▼ -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 | ACCUMULATE | 62.5 | 60.0 | 69.2 | 57.7 | — | ▲ +0.26% | 14.8 | 7/4/15/14 |
| Financial Services 94 scanned · 5 ranked elsewhere · 1 researched | WATCH | 47.8 | 58.9 | 23.1 | 59.1 | — | ▲ +0.22% | 16.1 | 9/1/63/21 |
| Healthcare & Hospitals 20 scanned · 16 ranked elsewhere · 7 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 · 32 researched | WATCH | 55.4 | 50.0 | 62.2 | 58.6 | — | — | — | 274/237/881/608 |
Source: data/verdicts.json × NSE sector index closes.
| Metric | Why it is in the framework | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Return on capital, level and trend | Durable 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-score | A nine-signal accounting checklist that separates real improvers from statistically cheap traps | Piotroski 2000 JAR |
| Cash-flow-to-net-profit | Accrual-heavy profit reverts; cash-backed profit persists | Sloan 1996 TAR |
| P/E versus the stock's own history | Cheap relative to itself, not to a peer set that may be expensive as a whole | Basu 1977 JF |
| Book-to-market | The value premium, in its original form | Fama–French 1992 JF |
| EV/EBITDA | Capital-structure-neutral, so it compares a leveraged firm to an unleveraged one | Practitioner standard |
| Altman Z and interest coverage | Distressed 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-DMA | Nearness to the high has predicted continuation — but momentum crashes, so never alone | George & Hwang 2004 JF; Daniel & Moskowitz 2016 JFE |
| Promoter pledge | Pledged 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.