Brokerages' Radar
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Brokerages issued fresh views on L&T, Wipro, Tata Consumer, HCL Tech, Maruti Suzuki alongside commentary on oil and marketing companies, financials, pharma and more.
Jefferies on Max Health
- Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 1,230.
- FY26 was the beginning of new bed addition phase, which will gain further momentum over the coming years.
- Select acquisitions will continue.
- On track to add 4,000 beds in 4 years of which ~50% are brownfield.
- Increased CGHS rates to be offset by loss of business from discontinued chemotherapy services patients.
Jefferies on OMCs
- OMC Marketing Outlook Improves with Peace in the Middle East.
- Peace in the Middle East should gradually normalise energy prices.
- Marketing losses on petrol and diesel at Spot Brent have narrowed to Rs (-)2/lt and Rs (-) 11/lt.
- Assuming normative GRMs, marketing margins at Spot Brent will rise above normative levels.
- This may lead to some increase in excise duties that were lowered in March.
- BPCL/IOCL are down 19%/23% since the start of the conflict and offer compelling risk-reward.
JPMorgan on L&T
- Maintain Overweight; Hike TP to Rs 5060 from Rs 4570
- Middle-East Deal Removes Tail Risk
- Middle East ordering and execution has been by and large normal so far
- 5-year strategic plan targets growth with RoE and aims to make L&T future ready
- FY27 guidance is healthy with H1 impacted by war
- L&T remains well positioned to benefit from these opportunities as well as capex in India
Macquarie on Pharma
- Pharma companies reiterated double-digit top-line growth.
- Commercial focused CDMOs such as Laurus Labs cited strong momentum.
- Hospital companies indicated that unit-level EBITDA breakeven timelines vary, typically ranging from a few quarters to up to a year.
- Strong outlook for pharmaceutical companies.
- Large CDMO players better positioned.
- Hospital capacity expansion dragging the profitability.
- Diagnostics segment seeing a recovery in volume-led growth.
MS on Financials
- RBI's Final Guidelines for Sales of Financial Products and Services by Regulated Entities
- On a preliminary read, there are no meaningful changes proposed vs. the draft.
- Except that these regulations will become applicable from January 1, 2027 vs. July 1, 2026 as proposed in the draft.
- Could require operational changes at lenders around compulsory bundling of third-party products with a regulated entity's products.
- Await potential regulations around insurance commissions from IRDAI.
- There has been no mention by RBI about mandatory open architecture in bancassurance in these regulations.
Jefferies on HDB Financial
- Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 845
- Mgmt indicated disbursements and asset quality trends during April, May have been steady and well ahead of last year.
- HDB reiterated its 16% AUM growth target for FY27.
- Expects NIMs to hold up in H1 despite higher bond yields and medium-term support from loan mix shift.
- Mgmt expects credit cost to ease to 2.3% in FY27.
- Opex to AUM to dip slightly supporting ROA expansion to 2.5% over FY26-28.
Jefferies India Strategy – Mahesh Nandurkar
- Interacted with 50+ investors in the US.
- India is a consensus Underweight for FPIs and that's unlikely to change in a hurry.
- Relative valuation vs growth continues to be a key concern on India.
- FPIs would look to get some clarity on AI/DRAM theme to peak before taking more meaningful bet on India.
- A churn towards newer ideas/hard assets (power, hospitals, airports, real estate) is likely.
Jefferies on Wipro
- Maintain Underperform with TP of Rs 180.
- AI - Medium-term opportunity; Short-term pressure.
- Highlighted that compression in traditional services revenues may continue to impact growth in the coming quarters.
- AI will expand addressable market led by Build/Reimagine opportunities.
- Wipro is driving platform based delivery and shifting away from T&M pricing.
- Margins may be under pressure in Q1, Wipro aims to bring them to 17-17.5% range.
Citi on Tata Consumer
- Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 1450
- Demand remains resilient, with no visible moderation so far.
- Growth outlook remains strong, led by sustained momentum in growth businesses.
- Commodity environment largely benign near-term.
- Pricing actions remain calibrated, with no broad-based hikes.
- Margin expansion trajectory remains intact.
- Overall, management remains confident in sustaining strong growth momentum.
MS on HCL Tech
- Maintain Equal-weight with TP of Rs 1,410.
- Investment in Sarvam AI may provide a strategic advantage around the theme of sovereign AI with governments and regulated enterprises globally.
- With a minority stake, the financial impact will be limited for HCL.
- An interesting transaction and slightly unusual compared to regular investments and M&A made by company/peers in the sector.
- Minority equity stake could help in stronger alignment of interests between both companies.
- There could be a flipside risk of the current investment becoming obsolete under the assumption of a low success ratio.
- Interesting to see proof points of use cases of the technology at global enterprise clients of HCL over the coming quarters.
Nomura on HCL Tech
- Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 1600
- This is the first of its kind investment by any Indian IT services company in a sovereign AI company.
- Funds raised will help Sarvam continue its R&D for training its next-generation frontier models.
- Investment will enable HCL to develop industry and client-specific language models and AI solutions for its global client base.
- It could leverage and expand Sarvam's multilingual AI capabilities in India and beyond India.
- It might accelerate the development and adoption of sovereign AI solutions.
Citi on RR Kabel
- Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 2,650.
- Demand continues to remain resilient – while export witnessed some disruption in March, April.
- Management remains confident of double-digit volume growth in Q1 and FY27.
- Have taken cumulative 25-30%+ price hike (in last 12 months) across Cables & Wires.
- Exports have rebounded sharply over the past 3–4 weeks.
- Management expecting both growth and margins to improve, aided by operating leverage.
- Competition from new entrant should be manageable as wires/cables differ materially from paints.
- FMEG to breakeven in FY27, helped by strong traction in fans and pricing actions.
Citi on Polycab
- Maintain Buy with TP of Rs 10500
- Domestic demand has recovered after a weak March
- Management saw healthy secondary sales from early April, with channel inventory at normalized levels
- April/May saw mid- to high-single digit volume growth despite a high base
- Took another 8–10% price hikes in Q1 to pass on the full imp act of higher commodity prices and currency depreciation
- Exports should grow faster than domestic in FY27
- EHV remains meaningful optionality
- C&W margins should remain near the higher end of 12–14%
Citi on Nykaa
- Maintain Sell with TP of Rs 225
- BPC growth momentum driven by growth in premium segments across skincare, fragrance, makeup, and other categories
- Fashion growth recovery in FY26 was led by improved demand environment, sharper marketing execution, and enhanced supply depth.
- Owned brands continue to outperform category with healthy growth, backed by range expansion and multichannel presence
- eB2B represents a large opportunity as unorganised retail becomes more formalised and tech-enabled.
- Clear focus on growth-first approach.
- Major margin drivers remain operating leverage and category mix between 3P/B2B and House of Nykaa.
Nomura on Maruti Suzuki
- Maintain Neutral with TP of Rs 13,435.
- Prices hiked by 0.4%, but much more needed.
- A 300 bps increase in costs may lead to sharp margin pressure in Q1FY27.
- Estimate inventory increased from 12 days at the end of Mar-26 to 24 days at the end of May-26.
InCred on UPL
- Downgrade to Hold from Add; Cut TP to Rs 659 from Rs 1,082.
- Agrochem business is under pressure.
- UPL's post-patent agrochem portfolio is under pressure from Chinese overcapacity and exports.
- Key molecules such as glufosinate, 2,4-D, carbendazim, azoxystrobin and acetamiprid are witnessing price pressure.
- Growth and margins may remain under pressure.
- Valuation justifies its derating.
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