Brokerage action remained active across individual stocks and key sectors, with upgrades, target price revisions and budget-related assessments driving market focus.
Shares of Delhivery are expected to remain in focus after Jefferies upgraded the company to Buy and raised its target price to ₹525 per share, while JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating with a higher target price of ₹600 per share.
Bajaj Auto also drew attention after Bernstein maintained a Buy rating on the company and raised its target price to ₹11,500 per share. Meanwhile, Citigroup maintained a Buy rating on Paytm with a target price of ₹1,375 per share.
At the sector level, CLSA said changes in buyback taxation could incentivise IT services companies to undertake share buybacks. Mirae Asset noted that the transport sector continues to remain the largest allocation, which supports logistics volumes.
Citigroup highlighted a re-acceleration in capital expenditure growth across key ministries, with rail, road and defence capex improving compared with the FY26 trend. The brokerage pointed to medium-term positives such as high-speed rail and dedicated freight corridor announcements, a push towards building a data centre ecosystem, and manufacturing scale-up in electronics and industrial segments.
Brokerages also shared mixed views on the India Union Budget. HDFC Securities described the budget as steady, disciplined and supportive of long-term growth themes, while Bank of America said fiscal policy has turned less contractionary than expected. Jefferies termed the budget pragmatic with no major surprises, noting it is negative for NBFCs, capital market stocks and Dixon, while positive for infrastructure, electronic goods and Paytm. Citigroup said the budget focuses on strategic foundations and macro stability, remaining overall negative for brokers, exchanges and PSU banks, but positive on industrials, oil marketing companies and cables. Goldman Sachs said fiscal consolidation reflects a focus on stability over growth, while Nuvama pointed out that the gross fiscal deficit has been set at 4.3% of GDP versus 4.4% in FY26, indicating slower fiscal consolidation.
In the insurance space, Morgan Stanley said budget relief has boosted the near-term outlook following pre-budget nervousness, highlighting SBI Life, ICICI Prudential Life and HDFC Life.
Defence stocks were also in focus after Goldman Sachs noted that the overall defence budget has risen 7% year-on-year to ₹7.85 lakh crore, ahead of estimates. Spending on other equipment such as missiles, ammunition, radar and electronics has increased 62% YoY to ₹82,200 crore, with Solar Industries, Bharat Electronics and Bharat Dynamics cited as direct beneficiaries.
On the negative side, capital market stocks remained under pressure after Bernstein and CLSA said sentiment around the derivatives trading value chain is expected to stay soft with some volume impact. Jefferies added that while the STT hike is largely manageable, industry checks suggest around a 5% impact on volumes, which could translate into an estimated 4% earnings impact for BSE and Groww.
Separately, Morgan Stanley maintained an Underperform rating on Dixon Technologies with a target price of ₹8,157 per share, while also flagging that weak offtake and rising competition continue to keep earnings risks elevated for Coal India.
Disclaimer: This article is based solely on brokerage inputs provided by the user. The views expressed are those of the respective brokerages and do not constitute investment advice or recommendations by the publication.
