Eqwires | Stock Market Advisory

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has delivered a major blow to financial influencers (finfluencers) by restricting their use of live stock market data in educational content. Under the new rule, announced through a circular on late Wednesday evening, stock market educators can only use stock prices with a three-month lag, effectively preventing them from offering real-time trading tips disguised as education. 

“A person engaged solely in education shall mean that such person is not engaged in any of the two prohibited activities. Such person should not be using the market price data of the preceding three months to speak/talk/display the name of any security including using any code name of the security in his/her talk/speech, video, ticker, screen share etc. indicating the future price, advice or recommendation related to security or securities,” the circular read. 

This move is expected to end the illegal advisory businesses that many finfluencers operate without Sebi registration. Sebi first restricted associations between registered and unregistered entities in its October 2024 circular, and the latest update on January 29 further tightens the rules. 

“These regulations have come into force with effect from August 29, 2024,” the market regulator said. 

Key points in Sebi’s latest circular state:

Stock market educators cannot use live stock prices – only data with a three-month lag.

Registered market entities cannot associate with finfluencers in any way that involves monetary or non-monetary compensation.

Investor education is allowed, but educators must not give investment advice or make performance claims without Sebi’s approval.

Educators cannot use stock names, codes, or price data from the past three months in any form that could imply investment advice.

Any entities found violating these rules risk penalties, suspension, or cancellation of their Sebi licence, the circular stated. 

“It is the responsibility of the persons regulated by Sebi to ensure that any person associated with them or their agent, directly or indirectly, does not engage in any of the above-mentioned two prohibited activities, directly or indirectly,” Sebi said. 

The rise of finfluencers on social media platforms has blurred the lines between financial education and investment advice, making it difficult to distinguish credible sources from misleading ones. Without access to live data, many finfluencers are likely to find it difficult to retain subscribers and students, as their business model relies heavily on real-time market speculation.

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Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said the country’s large language model (LLM) is expected to be ready within the next 10 months. 

During a press conference on the India AI Mission on Thursday, Vaishnaw said, “We have created the framework, and it is being launched today. Our focus is on building AI models that maintain the Indian context and culture.” 

He said the project will be supported by the India AI Compute Facility, which has procured 18,693 GPUs to facilitate the creation of a LLM designed specifically for India, CNBC-TV18 reported. 

Vaishnaw emphasised India’s AI capabilities by comparing the country’s infrastructure to global benchmarks. “DeepSeek AI was trained on 2,000 GPUs, ChatGPT was trained on 25,000 GPUs, and we now have 15,000 high-end GPUs available. India now has a robust compute facility that will support our AI ambitions,” CNBC-TV18 quoted him as saying.

A shared compute facility with 18,000 GPUs has been launched, designed to be accessible to startups, researchers, and developers. Around 10,000 GPUs are already operational, he said.

“The technical partners started working and investing well before the finalisation. This facility will be available for everyone to use,” Vaishnaw added. 

GPU providers for this initiative include Jio Platforms, Tata Communications, Yotta, and NextGen Data Centre. For comparison, DeepSeek was trained using 2,500 GPUs.

India’s own AI model

A key goal of the India AI Mission is to develop a domestically-produced AI model tailored to the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity. The government has called for proposals from AI startups, with six major developers now working on models expected to be ready in 4–6 months, with a maximum timeline of 8–10 months.

“With algorithmic efficiency, we can create these models in a much shorter time frame. We will have a world-class foundational AI model in just a few months,” the minister said.

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India’s Dr Lal Path Labs reported a 19 per cent jump in its third-quarter profit on Thursday, led by continued demand for its bundle test offerings, sending its shares 3 per cent higher.

The company’s consolidated net profit rose to Rs 96.7 crore ($11.2 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, from Rs 81.3 crore a year earlier, but fell short of analysts’ estimate of Rs 97.69 crore, according to data compiled by LSEG.

An increasing awareness around health and wellness, coupled with the expansion of diagnostics firms such as Dr Lal Path into smaller cities, has boosted demand for medical tests.

The company, which operates about 300 testing labs, said the number of samples tested grew 10 per cent during the quarter. 

Dr Lal Path has also benefited from strong demand for its bundle test offerings, which combine tests for multiple diseases such as hyperthyroidism and diabetes, analysts said.

The company’s revenue from operations met analysts’ estimates and climbed about 11 per cent to Rs 597 crore.

It declared a dividend of six rupees per share for the fiscal year 2025.

Rival Metropolis Healthcare is set to report its third-quarter results next week.

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41% of the 17 analysts who have coverage on state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) have a “buy” recommendation on the stock. This is the highest level of “buy” recommendations for the PSU dating back to 2011.

Seven out of those 17 analysts have a “buy” rating on BHEL, while eight of them still have a “sell” recommendation. Two others have a “hold” rating.

BHEL reported its December quarter results after market hours on Tuesday, January 28, where its revenue went up by 32% from last year aided by better execution in the Power & Industry segment.

However, margin expansion was below expectations despite Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) growing by 41% year-on-year. The subdued margin expansion was due to a jump in other expenses. In fact, BHEL’s EBITDA too missed expectations despite the 41% jump.

Calculated order inflow during the quarter stood at ₹6,860 crore, which was a growth of 167% from last year, while the company’s order book stood at ₹1.6 lakh crore.

Brokerage firm CLSA maintained its “reduce” rating on the stock and cut its price target to ₹166 from ₹205 earlier, calling the stock “expensive” at 34 times financial year 2026 price-to-earnings.

CLSA wrote that the key catalyst for BHEL’s re-rating was its inclusion in the global passive indices and that has passed.

With L&T entering the thermal power equipment business, BHEL’s market dominance is also under question, CLSA wrote in its note, while cutting its financial year 2025-2027 Earnings Per Share (EPS) estimates by 3% to 8% to factor in weak margins.

On the flip side, Morgan Stanley has an “overweight” rating on BHEL with a price target of ₹352, more than double of CLSA.

The brokerage said that BHEL’s standalone revenue was above their estimates, as was the company’s EBITDA and adjusted profit.

Shares of BHEL ended 3.7% lower on Tuesday at ₹187.4. The PSU stock has corrected 45% from its recent peak of ₹335.

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Maruti Suzuki India Ltd reported a 16 percent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,727 crore for the third quarter of FY25, surpassing analysts’ estimates. A Moneycontrol poll of brokerages had projected the automaker’s net profit at Rs 3,596 crore, reflecting a 15 percent increase year-on-year.

Revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 38,764 crore, marking a 16 percent year-on-year rise, slightly below analysts’ estimate of Rs 38,838 crore. On a standalone basis, the company recorded its highest-ever quarterly net sales at Rs 36,802 crore, up 15.5 percent from Rs 31,860 crore in the same period last year. Standalone net profit rose 12.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 3,525 crore from Rs 3,130 crore in Q3 FY24.

Maruti Suzuki shares gave up the day’s gains post the Q3 earnings report, and fell into red. The stock was trading down 0.9 percent at Rs 12,015 on NSE.

The company registered strong sales performance during the quarter, with total vehicle sales rising 13 percent year-on-year to 5,66,213 units. Domestic sales increased by 8.7 percent to 4,66,993 units, while exports surged 38.2 percent to 99,220 units, marking the highest-ever exports in any quarter.

Among key segments, utility vehicle (UV) sales rose 20.2 percent to 1,85,298 units, while compact car sales declined 4.6 percent to 1,82,227 units. Mini car sales grew marginally by 2.8 percent to 27,855 units. Sales to other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) nearly doubled, rising 89.2 percent year-on-year to 27,102 units.

On the operational front, EBITDA for the quarter stood at Rs 4,471 crore, reflecting a 14 percent increase from Rs 3,908 crore a year ago. However, EBITDA margin came in slightly lower at 11.6 percent, compared to 11.7 percent in Q3 FY24.

Brokerages had anticipated a decline in EBITDA margins due to higher discounts and increased spending on advertising and promotions. However, the impact was mitigated by a richer product mix, higher average selling prices, and operating leverage benefits.

Operating EBIT grew 16.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 3,665 crore, while profit before tax (PBT) rose 13.5 percent to Rs 4,601 crore. The company saw a marginal increase in material costs as a percentage of net sales, which stood at 74.7 percent compared to 74 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Other expenses declined to 13.6 percent from 14.1 percent, while depreciation expenses as a percentage of sales fell to 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent last year. Non-operating income contributed 2.7 percent of net sales, slightly lower than 2.9 percent in Q3 FY24.

For the April-December period of FY25, Maruti Suzuki recorded its highest-ever nine-month sales volume, it said in a statement. The company sold a total of 16,29,631 units during the period, reflecting a 5 percent growth over the same period last year. Domestic sales stood at 13,82,135 units, while exports reached 2,47,496 units.

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