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“Small and midcaps have been hit hard—Nifty Smallcap 100 is down 21%, valuations remain above long-term averages, and earnings disappointments have led to downgrades,” says Rajkumar Singhal, CEO, Quest Investment Advisors. In an interview with ETMarkets, Singhal said: “With earnings likely to recover in CY25, the pain in small and midcaps may ease. A selective bottom-up approach is key—focus on quality businesses with strong balance sheets and sustainable growth,” Edited excerpts: Thanks for taking the time. February was highly volatile amid trade war fears and FII selling. What are your views?

Kernex Microsystems shares will be in focus on Friday after the company announced that South Eastern Railway has issued a letter of acceptance (LoA) to the Kernex-MRT consortium for a Rs 325.33-crore contract to supply, install, test, and commission the Kavach safety system across 688 RKM in the Kharagpur and Chakradharpur divisions. «We would like to inform you that 'South Eastern Railways, Kolkata' has issued a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the KERNEX-MRT CONSORTIUM for the project, namely, the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of Kavach on GO & GO routes (688 RKM), including associated works in sections of the Kharagpur and Chakradharpur divisions of South Eastern Railway,» the company said in an exchange filing.

buy call on Havells India with a target price of Rs 1,800. The current market price of Havells India Ltd. is Rs 1,420. Havells India, incorporated in 1983, is a Large Cap company with a market cap of Rs 90423.81 crore, operating in the Consumer Durables sector. Havells India's key products/revenue segments include Cables, Traded Goods, Electrical Consumer Durables, Domestic Switchgears, Light Fittings & Fixture, Others, Export Incentives for the year ending 31-Mar-2024.

Tata Power will be in focus on Friday after the company announced that its solar manufacturing arm, TP Solar, has secured an order worth Rs 632 crore to supply 292.5 MWp solar modules to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). This order, awarded under the CPSU Scheme Tranche-III, involves the delivery of high-quality DCR (Domestic Content Requirement) modules to a site in Ramagiri, Andhra Pradesh.

In the IPO, the company has reserved 30% for institutional investors, 40% for retail investors. The rest of 30% is kept aside for non-institutional investors, who in the recent past emerged as the strongest pillar for the IPOs in the SME segment.

market fatigue, particularly for retail traders. However, Rohit Srivastava, Founder of Strike Money Analytics & Indiacharts, believes the market may be nearing a bottom, based on historical and seasonal trends, as he stated in a discussion on ET Now.

Christy Mathai of Quantum MF, in a discussion on ET Now, outlined his views on which sectors appear vulnerable to further correction and which ones present attractive opportunities at current valuations.

Sandip Sabharwal, asksandipsabharwal.com, says they do not own any of those stocks and he is not looking to buy also because the entire re-rating in wires and cables was beyond his understanding. He feels Valuations will come down to reasonable levels at some stage, but given the commodity nature of the business, he does not like these businesses so much. Sabharwal also says that the bull market has shifted investor perception about what stock valuation means to new investors. About two years ago most investors accepted a stock price-to-earnings ratio of 12 to 15 for midcap stocks but rarely exceeded 20 PE when purchasing stocks. Since the market corrected, many midcap as well as smallcap companies currently maintain PE ratios at 50-60 levels. First, let us talk about UltraTech Cement. I guess the market is clearly not liking this diversification. What explains the downtick on the stock today? Sandip Sabharwal: When they went into paints, it seemed like a natural progression because cement, paint, similar kinds of distribution channels although the retail channel could be somewhat different and the usage patterns could be the same. Cables and wires is a somewhat different industry, although they are talking about the entire building segment and covering all aspects to it.

Dell on Thursday forecast a decline in its adjusted gross margin rate for fiscal year 2026, hit by higher costs to build artificial intelligence servers in a fiercely competitive market, while its PC business also lagged amid soft demand. The Round Rock, Texas-based company's shares fell about 2% in extended trading, even as it announced a $10 billion increase in its share buyback plan.

Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras could bring forward investments in the future if it leads to higher oil production earlier, Chief Executive Magda Chambriard told journalists during a presentation of the 2024 financial results. On Wednesday the firm reported higher-than-expected investments for 2024 in its fourth-quarter results release, surprising analysts and leading to a dip in the share price on Thursday.

Advantest tanking more than 9%. The Nikkei fell to 37,501.24 as of 0017 GMT, while the broader Topix was down 1.2% at 2,703.57.

Oil prices eased on Friday, heading for their first monthly drop since November, as uncertainty over global economic growth and fuel demand from Washington's tariff threats and further signs of a U.S. economic slowdown outweighed supply concerns. The more active May Brent crude futures slipped 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.26 a barrel by 0133 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $70.05 a barrel, down 30 cents, or 0.4%. Front-month Brent expires later on Friday.

The yen was meanwhile set to end the month with a gain of more than 3.6%, its best since last July, on heightened bets of more Bank of Japan (BOJ) rate hikes this year.

The stock closed lower at $120.15, while other members of the group such as Microsoft and Amazon also ended the session weaker, after Nvidia's earnings failed to inspire the kind of gains that became a hallmark of the AI rally through 2023 and 2024.

Nvidia tumbled 8.5%, evaporating $274 billion in stock market value, after the Silicon Valley company gave a weaker-than-expected quarterly forecast for gross margin that overshadowed an upbeat revenue outlook.

WPP expects its revenue and profit to be flat at best this year because of a weak Chinese market and uncertainty in the United States, it said on Thursday, as its shares hit a four-year low following disappointing results. For 2024, WPP reported a 1.0% fall in organic revenue, missing analysts forecasts of a 0.4% drop. Its shares fell 16%.

US stock market has risen in 2025 and isn't far from its all-time high set last week. But it's climbed less than stock indexes in Mexico City, Paris and Hong Kong. The difference in performance has been so stark than an index of stocks from 22 of 23 developed economies around the world, excluding the United States, has trounced the S&P 500: a 7.5 per cent rise through Monday versus 1.7 per cent for Wall Street's benchmark.

Gold prices tumbled by Rs 1,150 to Rs 88,200 per 10 grams in the national capital on Thursday, tracking a bearish trend in global markets, according to the All India Sarafa Association. Gold of 99.5 per cent purity also slumped by Rs 1,150 to Rs 87,800 per 10 grams from the previous close of Rs 88,950 per 10 grams. Silver prices tanked by Rs 1,000 to Rs 98,500 per kg from the last close of Rs 99,500 per kg. Bullion markets were closed on Wednesday for Mahashivratri.

HSBC slashed target prices for India’s leading wires and cables companies by as much as 23% on Thursday, citing competitive risks from UltraTech Cement’s surprise foray into the industry. The brokerage said UltraTech’s Rs 1,800 crore investment could be an “industry-fragmenting” event, weighing on long-term earnings growth for incumbents.

Nestle India Ltd.(up 1.24%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Healthcare Ltd.(up 0.94%), Nakoda Group Of Industries Ltd.(up 0.84%), Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Ltd.(up 0.83%), Euro India Fresh Foods Ltd.(up 0.72%), Honasa Consumer Ltd.(up 0.70%), Jyothy Labs Ltd.(up 0.58%), Prataap Snacks Ltd.(up 0.45%), Tata Consumer Products Ltd.(up 0.32%) and Marico Ltd.(up 0.25%) stood among the top gainers.