The Close

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

Brent crude near $96/bbl as US-Iran strikes resume, a fresh headwind for India's import bill and rupee.

US-Iran military strikes resumed this week for the first time in about a month, pushing Brent to its strongest weekly gain since mid-July and reigniting fears of Strait of Hormuz disruption. For a large net oil importer, sustained crude near $96 is a real drag on the import bill, inflation and the rupee, layering onto a US jobs report that has pushed Fed September hike odds to roughly a coin flip -- a macro backdrop worth weighing against any sector-specific call this session, though neither is itself a sector catalyst.

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 · 5 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 WATCH
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 (1)

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
Mixed signal (weighted avg 3.35/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
new
Mixed signal (weighted avg 3.49/5 across available lenses) — no strong edge either way.
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 (25)

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
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 QUALITY-WAIT 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
ICICIGI ₹1,510.00 AVOID HOLD if next session holds
INDIAMART ₹1,726.40 HOLD BUY 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
NH ₹1,858.50 QUALITY-WAIT BUY if next session holds
POWERMECH ₹2,306.10 BUY HOLD if next session holds
RACLGEAR ₹1,576.10 BUY 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
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

Star Cement trims FY27 volume guidance on Assam floods, but holds its capex plan steady Construction & Materials

Star Cement cut FY27 cement volume-growth guidance to ~8-9% YoY from ~11-12% after July volumes fell ~12% YoY on Assam flooding, with fuel costs also up sharply; ICICI Securities trimmed its target to Rs 251 but kept a Buy. Management calls the miss weather-driven and expects a September/H2 rebound on an easier comp, and left its Rs 500cr (FY27)/Rs 1,500cr (FY28) North-India capex plan unchanged -- a bet the demand hit is transitory, not structural. This is the last scheduled deep-research session on this name.

STARCEMENT

No TCS chairman successor named yet; Tata Trust only now forms a Selection Committee Information Technology

Nearly a month after N. Chandrasekaran said he would not seek reappointment when his term ends Feb 2027, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust has set up a Selection Committee to recommend a candidate; reported internal contenders include Tata Steel CEO T V Narendran, Tata Sons CFO Saurabh Agrawal and NSE MD Ashish Chauhan. Still consistent with an orderly handover, but too early to call the open succession-risk claim resolved either way.

TCS

Maruti's soft August sales and fresh price hikes add to the case for a BUY->HOLD downgrade Automobiles

Maruti's total vehicle sales fell month-on-month in August with exports down 7.4% YoY, and the company is raising prices by up to Rs 30,000 from August citing input-cost inflation -- incremental negative evidence ahead of the stock's pending BUY->HOLD call flip, though not a decisive resolution on its own.

MARUTI

Unsolicited $1.10/share tender for ~31% of Yatra shares set to expire Sept 17 Hospitality & Tourism

Magna Holdings has launched an unsolicited tender offer for up to 20 million Yatra Online shares (~31% of shares outstanding) at $1.10/share, expiring midnight NYC time Sept 17, 2026 -- a governance-relevant development worth tracking ahead of Yatra's pending BUY->QUALITY-WAIT call review, though its market implications are unclear from the single source found so far.

YATRA

New India Assurance jumps ~17% on NSE-IPO speculation, not its own fundamentals Financial Services

New India Assurance surged to a 52-week high on a six-fold volume spike, driven by anticipation of the NSE's own upcoming IPO rather than any NIACL-specific catalyst -- a reminder that today's FINANCIAL_SERVICES dispersion mover reflects speculative flow, not a change in the sector's or the company's outlook.

NIACL

Sector Scorecard

Entry score is 40% cheap-vs-history + 25% quality trend + 20% news catalyst + 15% technicals, for the 5 sectors with a researched catalyst. The other 16 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 WATCH 60.3 62.0 78.7 38.6 +0 ▼ -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 82 scanned · 5 researched WATCH 46.4 26.2 68.2 63.9 ▲ +1.07% 16.2 16/10/37/19
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 46.8 21.3 73.8 65.5 +0 ▼ -0.87% 43.0 11/14/27/6
Hospitality & Tourism 37 scanned · 5 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 49.4 26.2 78.1 62.8 +0 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 30 scanned · 2 researched WATCH 55.7 54.6 52.6 63.9 5/2/10/13
Diversified & Other 35 scanned · 1 researched WATCH 50.4 39.8 60.8 61.6 2/4/17/12

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 328,931 cr · Large P/E 27.88 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.