Tata group stocks mixed a day after Chandra's exit; check winners & losers

Tata group stocks traded in a narrow range on Thursday, August 13, with the majority eking out minute gains and only a handful trading with cuts, recovering from a knee-jerk reaction seen a day earlier following the announcement of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran's resignation.

Investors also assessed the impact of Chandra's exit on the Tata group stocks ahead of the end of his term in February next year. A Tata lifer, Chandra announced his decision to step down as Tata Sons chairman amid uncertainty over his reappointment as a director of Tata Sons following differences within the group.

After shedding almost up to 5 per cent a day earlier, most Tata group stocks gained. Titan and Tata Investment Corporation remained the top laggards, shedding over 1 per cent each on the BSE in the early morning session.

The most-valuable group stock, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), extended its decline and shed another 0.7 per cent after a sharp 5 per cent plunge in yesterday's session. Tejas Networks, Indian Hotels and Trent were among other stocks that traded with cuts.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, which houses the commercial vehicle business, emerged as the top performer as investors hailed its earnings performance released last evening. The automaker's stock rallied 6 per cent to ₹485 on the BSE.

The company posted an 83 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase in its consolidated net profit to ₹2,560 crore for the quarter ended June. Revenue from operations also rose 19.3 per cent to ₹20,667 crore. Following a robust performance, better-than-expected Ebitda and amid expectations of improvement in margins led by price hikes, global brokerage Nomura upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral'. Its latest target price of ₹554 signals a 22 per cent upside from last close.

Tata Motors PV shares also traded 0.5 per cent higher ahead of their Q1 results later in the day.

Other stocks that gained included Tata Teleservices (up 4.45 per cent), Tata Technologies (up 1.4 per cent), and Nelco (1.3 per cent). Tata Steel, Tata Power, Tata Elxsi, Tata Chemicals and Orient Hotels also eked out up to 0.5 per cent gains.

"For long-term investors, the core listed Tata stocks look fundamentally intact, but near-term sentiment will track the August AGM and any clarity on strategy, listing, and succession," said Seema Srivastava, senior research analyst at SMC Global Securities.