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The Long Desk

The Close · The Open · The Long Desk · Archive · Research
Fri, 4 Sep 2026
1440 companies · 1461 sector slots · 21 sectors · 10 below Rs1000cr and not scanned · long-term lens

Trend Spotlight

A hawkish US jobs beat and a fresh US-Iran oil spike are pushing Fed-hike odds and crude up together, capping the rupee's recent strength.

August US nonfarm payrolls rose 162,000 against a roughly 55,000 consensus, with unemployment steady at 4.1% and benign 3.1% wage growth, lifting priced-in odds of a September Fed hike toward 60%. At the same time, renewed US-Iran strikes pushed Brent to $96.28/bbl and WTI to $91.48/bbl, up nearly 9% on the week. Together they are lifting US Treasury yields and capping the rupee's recent two-month high against the dollar -- a genuine cost-of-capital and import-bill setup worth carrying into a long-term view, though next Friday's US CPI print is the variable that actually decides the Fed's next move, and India's own August CPI (projected near a series-high 4.88%) is still an unconfirmed private forecast, not the official print.

Market Overview

IndexClosePoints ChangeP/EP/B
Nifty 50 23,897.70 ▲ +24.25 ▲ +0.10% 20.20 2.89
Nifty Next 50 72,880.90 ▼ -170.95 ▼ -0.23% 19.27 3.24
Nifty 500 23,254.15 ▲ +0.10 ■ +0.00% 22.53 3.24
Nifty Bank 57,369.65 ▼ -10.95 ▼ -0.02% 13.57 1.72
NIFTY Midcap 100 63,079.05 ▼ -156.15 ▼ -0.25% 30.40 4.34
▲ 1403 advancing ■ 39 unchanged ▼ 1186 declining of 2628 equities, vs the 2026-09-03 close
Cash market, ₹ crore
FII / FPI net
▼ -3,111.94
bought 13,858 · sold 16,970
DII net
▲ +8,930.12
bought 19,254 · sold 10,324
FII / FPI DII
FII / DII daily net cash flow · ₹ crore · scroll to zoom, drag to pan

Source: NSE ind_close_all_20260904 (levels, index P/E and P/B) and the full-market bhavcopy (breadth).

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

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. Sectors with no listed NSE index show — for the session columns; the stance still applies.

SectorIndexSession Idx P/EStance
Metals & Mining Nifty Metal · 5 researched 13,317.45 ▲ +1.07% 16.2 WATCH
Financial Services Nifty Financial Services · 5 researched 26,051.00 ▲ +0.49% 16.0 WATCH
Banks Nifty Bank · 12 researched 57,369.65 ▼ -0.02% 13.6 AVOID
FMCG Nifty FMCG · 4 researched 45,892.75 ▼ -0.14% 31.8 WATCH
Energy & Power Nifty Energy · 8 researched 38,067.85 ▼ -0.19% 14.8 WATCH
Hospitality & Tourism Nifty India Tourism · 6 researched 7,816.30 ▼ -0.24% 88.2 ACCUMULATE
Automobiles Nifty Auto · 17 researched 27,710.90 ▼ -0.45% 32.2 WATCH
Information Technology Nifty IT · 15 researched 30,695.10 ▼ -0.47% 19.6 ACCUMULATE
Pharmaceuticals Nifty Pharma · 10 researched 26,478.10 ▼ -0.68% 41.0 AVOID
Healthcare & Hospitals Nifty Healthcare Index · 2 researched 16,408.05 ▼ -0.87% 43.0 WATCH
Realty Nifty Realty · 3 researched 907.90 ▼ -0.90% 38.6 WATCH
Capital Goods no listed index · 5 researched WATCH
Chemicals no listed index · 1 researched WATCH
Commercial Services no listed index · 2 researched WATCH
Construction & Materials no listed index · 4 researched WATCH
Diversified & Other no listed index · 1 researched WATCH
Logistics & Transport no listed index · 1 researched WATCH
Packaging & Plastics no listed index WATCH
Retail & Consumer no listed index WATCH
Telecom & Media no listed index · 1 researched WATCH
Textiles & Apparel no listed index · 2 researched WATCH

Movers in the universe

Largest moves among the 1437 tracked names this session, against the 2026-09-03 close.

CompanyCallPrev CloseMove
Jindal Worldwide Ltd JINDWORLD HOLD ₹48.15 ₹57.51 ▲ +19.44%
New India Assurance Company Ltd NIACL AVOID ₹195.33 ₹229.91 ▲ +17.70%
Rane (Madras) Ltd RML BUY ₹1,127.40 ₹1,295.90 ▲ +14.95%
PC Jeweller Ltd PCJEWELLER HOLD ₹10.52 ₹11.86 ▲ +12.74%
Saraswati Commercial (India) Ltd ZSARACOM HOLD ₹10,227.00 ₹11,302.00 ▲ +10.51%
Federal-Mogul Goetze (India) Ltd FMGOETZE BUY ₹613.70 ₹501.45 ▼ -18.29%
Dynamic Cables Ltd DYCL BUY ₹544.30 ₹487.90 ▼ -10.36%
Jayaswal Neco Industries Ltd JAYNECOIND AVOID ₹98.68 ₹89.04 ▼ -9.77%
KEI Industries Ltd KEI AVOID ₹5,327.00 ₹4,850.00 ▼ -8.95%
Jaykay Enterprises Ltd JAYKAY HOLD ₹166.46 ₹153.69 ▼ -7.67%

Calls this session

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

Sector stance changed (2)

Published this session (21)

new
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG n/a; P/E cheaper than 38% of sector peers (P/E 36.52); EV/EBITDA 13.9, B/M 0.153. Watch for a better entry.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 2/5) — PEG n/a; P/E cheaper than 55% of sector peers (P/E 36.33); EV/EBITDA 25.2, B/M 0.162. Watch for a better entry.
new
Weighted average rating 3.83/5 including quality and value — the rare combination.
new
Mixed signal (weighted avg 2.53/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 1/5) — PEG 1.7; P/E cheaper than 0% of sector peers (P/E 17.49); EV/EBITDA 14.0, B/M 0.101. Watch for a better entry.
new
Weighted average rating 2.46/5 across the panel — too many weak lenses to own.
new
Weighted average rating 4.44/5 including quality and value — the rare combination.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 1/5) — PEG n/a; P/E cheaper than 17% of sector peers (P/E 13.56); EV/EBITDA 9.2, B/M 0.291. Watch for a better entry.
new
Mixed signal (weighted avg 3.61/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Mixed signal (weighted avg 3.51/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Good business, bad price today (Value 1/5) — PEG n/a; P/E cheaper than 34% of sector peers (P/E 37.46); EV/EBITDA 40.2, B/M 0.131. Watch for a better entry.
new
Mixed signal (weighted avg 2.68/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.

and 9 more.

Awaiting a second session (30)

TickerClosePublished PendingNote
ABBOTINDIA ₹26,065.00 QUALITY-WAIT HOLD if next session holds
AJMERA ₹117.76 BUY HOLD if next session holds
ARTEMISMED ₹332.80 BUY QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
BAJAJ-AUTO ₹11,919.00 HOLD BUY if next session holds
BBL ₹2,289.30 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
CAMPUS ₹223.24 QUALITY-WAIT BUY if next session holds
CHALET ₹896.75 BUY QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
CMLL ₹503.05 HOLD BUY if next session holds
CMPDI ₹243.92 HOLD BUY if next session holds
COFORGE ₹1,972.80 HOLD QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
DPABHUSHAN ₹1,414.20 HOLD BUY if next session holds
FLAIR ₹243.71 HOLD BUY if next session holds
GENESYS ₹230.88 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
GRAVITA ₹1,661.60 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
ICICIGI ₹1,510.00 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
INDIAMART ₹1,726.40 HOLD BUY if next session holds
IPCALAB ₹1,965.30 HOLD QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
KDDL ₹3,911.00 HOLD QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
MARUTI ₹12,694.00 BUY HOLD if next session holds
MATRIMONY ₹529.05 HOLD BUY if next session holds
MOIL ₹252.30 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
NH ₹1,858.50 QUALITY-WAIT BUY if next session holds
PPLPHARMA ₹214.22 HOLD QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
RAMCOSYS ₹611.20 BUY QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
STYLAMIND ₹3,387.40 BUY QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
TATASTEEL ₹188.79 HOLD BUY if next session holds
TECHNOCRAF ₹366.10 BUY HOLD if next session holds
TVSHLTD ₹13,374.00 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
YATRA ₹113.49 BUY QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds
ZFCVINDIA ₹2,551.90 HOLD QUALITY-WAIT if next session holds

Top Stories

Stylam Industries lands a new plant, a Rs 250-300 cr revenue target and a 26% strategic stake from Japan's Aica Kogyo Construction & Materials

Stylam's new manufacturing plant is set for commercial production by September 2026, targeted to add Rs 250-300 crore of revenue in its first year, alongside Q1 FY27 net profit up 70.4% YoY to Rs 48.15 crore. Separately, Aica Kogyo is acquiring a 26% stake (~Rs 991 crore) with board and governance changes approved at the August 28 AGM -- a genuine growth catalyst, though the plant hasn't shipped a quarter of revenue yet and the new external stakeholder's governance role is still untested.

STYLAMIND

Saksoft's client concentration eased slightly in Q1 FY27, but management still flags continued pressure at top clients Information Technology

Top-10 client revenue concentration fell to 56% from 58% a year earlier, yet management's Q1 FY27 commentary explicitly cited continued pressure and delayed deal conversions among top clients, with net profit down 18.4% sequentially. This does not resolve the open client-concentration claim -- the headline number improved, but the qualitative risk the claim is built on persists into this quarter.

SAKSOFT

Muthoot Finance's Stage-3 classification-shift explanation is repeated, but still comes from management alone Financial Services

Reporting continues to attribute Muthoot's Stage-3 asset rise to a shift from loan-wise to borrower-wise NPA recognition, with group gross Stage-3 having fallen from 3.41% to 2.35% in FY26 on that basis. This matches the open claim's framing but is single-sourced and pre-Q2 FY27 -- no independent analyst or regulatory confirmation was found, so the claim stays open rather than resolved.

MUTHOOTFIN

Datamatics reiterates high single-digit FY27 growth guidance and a three-year Rs 3,000 cr revenue target Information Technology

Following Q1 FY27 net profit up 43.5% YoY to Rs 72.3 crore, management maintained its FY27 growth guidance and set a medium-term target of a Rs 3,000 crore revenue run-rate within three years, citing AI integration and possible M&A. No client-loss or governance flags were found. Single-sourced, and reads as a reiteration of an existing target rather than a new one.

DATAMATICS
Sources: simplywall.st

Hyundai India says Chennai-plant production has fully normalised, reiterating FY27 guidance ahead of Q2 results Automobiles

Hyundai's MD said Q1 FY27's hit from the Chennai (Mobis supplier) fire and West Asia export disruption was transitory, with production normalised by quarter-end and FY27 guidance (8-10% volume growth, 11-14% EBITDA margin) reiterated. No Q2 FY27 results exist yet to actually test whether the fire-linked hit is over, so the open claim on whether the profit fall was transitory remains exactly where it was.

HYUNDAI

Sector Scorecard

Entry score is 40% cheap-vs-history + 25% quality trend + 20% news catalyst + 15% technicals, for the 2 sectors with a researched catalyst. The other 19 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 75 scanned · 15 researched ACCUMULATE 62.8 62.0 78.7 38.6 ▼ -0.47% 19.6 15/8/44/8
Banks 40 scanned · 12 researched AVOID 40.4 24.1 52.3 64.2 ▼ -0.02% 13.6 0/0/30/10
Pharmaceuticals 85 scanned · 10 researched AVOID 43.8 16.9 72.0 68.4 ▼ -0.68% 41.0 0/17/58/10
Automobiles 109 scanned · 17 researched WATCH 50.1 25.3 78.3 69.2 +0 ▼ -0.45% 32.2 34/19/44/12
FMCG 107 scanned · 4 researched WATCH 56.0 50.0 67.9 52.0 ▼ -0.14% 31.8 14/22/54/17
Metals & Mining 83 scanned · 5 researched WATCH 47.1 27.9 67.9 63.8 ▲ +1.07% 16.2 16/10/38/19
Realty 38 scanned · 3 researched WATCH 52.7 50.0 52.1 60.9 ▼ -0.90% 38.6 3/2/14/19
Energy & Power 83 scanned · 8 researched WATCH 51.1 39.6 63.4 61.0 ▼ -0.19% 14.8 10/7/33/33
Financial Services 150 scanned · 5 ranked elsewhere · 5 researched WATCH 50.3 50.0 44.2 61.6 +0 ▲ +0.49% 16.0 11/4/84/51
Healthcare & Hospitals 58 scanned · 16 ranked elsewhere · 2 researched WATCH 46.0 21.3 73.8 65.5 ▼ -0.87% 43.0 11/14/27/6
Hospitality & Tourism 37 scanned · 6 researched ACCUMULATE 62.4 63.8 69.5 46.6 ▼ -0.24% 88.2 15/4/8/10
Chemicals 100 scanned · 1 researched WATCH 57.8 50.0 68.5 61.0 15/15/46/24
Construction & Materials 127 scanned · 4 researched WATCH 59.1 63.5 61.8 42.8 18/11/59/39
Capital Goods 103 scanned · 5 researched WATCH 49.3 26.2 78.1 62.8 18/19/50/16
Textiles & Apparel 48 scanned · 2 researched WATCH 52.1 42.6 62.0 61.2 11/8/15/14
Retail & Consumer 66 scanned WATCH 58.8 50.0 68.7 66.1 7/10/30/19
Packaging & Plastics 34 scanned WATCH 49.5 32.2 65.3 69.5 8/4/14/8
Logistics & Transport 25 scanned · 1 researched WATCH 47.0 27.3 70.0 61.0 9/3/6/7
Telecom & Media 29 scanned · 1 researched WATCH 52.3 50.0 60.3 45.0 8/1/9/11
Commercial Services 31 scanned · 2 researched WATCH 54.1 51.3 52.8 63.8 6/2/10/13
Diversified & Other 33 scanned · 1 researched WATCH 46.8 32.0 60.8 62.8 1/4/16/12

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

Stocks to Watch

Split across large/mid/small/micro cap so this list isn't one tier's picks — new calls first, then the highest long-term composites within each. Each shows the figures that selected it — open the desk for the full six-lens panel.

new call this session
P/E in the 98th percentile of its own 3-year range · ROCE 28.2% (up 3.2pt over 5y)
Composite 51.9 Mkt Cap 327,539 cr · Large P/E 27.8 ROCE 28.2% Piotroski 5/9
new call this session
P/E in the 49th percentile of its own 3-year range · ROCE 60.3% (up 3.3pt over 5y) · Piotroski 7/8
Composite 70.1 Mkt Cap 18,822 cr · Mid P/E 17.49 ROCE 60.3% Piotroski 7/8
new call this session
P/E in the 28th percentile of its own 3-year range
Composite 80.4 Mkt Cap 5,296 cr · Small P/E 13.56 ROCE 26.2% Piotroski 6/9
new call this session
P/E in the 41th percentile of its own 3-year range · ROCE 24.1% (down 1.9pt over 5y) · Piotroski 7/9
Composite 63.5 Mkt Cap 2,574 cr · Micro P/E 11.66 ROCE 24.1% Piotroski 7/9

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.