The two names spearheaded a firm recovery in valuations for four of India’s top 10 listed concerns, even when the benchmarks were sliding. It is a matter of timing: once more than 140 companies have filed their Q1FY27 returns, any shift in market cap can be a quick way to read the room.
Why these gains are of note before Q1
You could call it a mixed bag for the week. The Sensex gave back 194.52 points (0.25%) and the Nifty 63.95 (0.26%), capping a run of four straight weeks in the green. But there was some selective muscle in the banking and telecom end of the market, where one might expect to find the early earnings outliers.
“We had an initial pop from softer crude, some good first-quarter news, a better monsoon and all-round buying,” says Ajit Mishra, SVP-Research at Religare Broking. Then mid-week, with the Iran-US situation, some profit booking set in until a late rally put some of the faith back in the market.”
That was on display by Friday’s bell. On 10 July, the Sensex put in 828 points for a 1.08% move to 77,569; the Nifty was 244 or 1.02% higher at 24,206.
Winners in a soft week
HDFC Bank made the most of it. The bank’s market cap is up Rs 35,808.09 crore to Rs 12,69,454.42 crore, which is likely to be the benchmark for the bank-heavy reporting period. Airtel was not far behind, chalking up Rs 34,896.92 crore to bring its valuation to Rs 11.98 lakh crore.
There was movement from a couple of other large caps as well. Reliance Industries was up by Rs 6,224.97 crore to Rs 17.71 lakh crore. LIC put in a solid Rs 16,065.5 crore for a total of Rs 5.60 lakh crore. All told, the quartet was responsible for the Rs 92,995.48 crore in added value while the rest of the indices wavered.
On the other side
Where the writing was on the wall was in consumer, tech and capital goods. Hindustan Unilever let go of Rs 12,088.65 crore and L&T was down Rs 11,040.23 crore, in line with some wariness on demand and capex plays.
TCS was off by Rs 8,574.87 crore, ICICI Bank by Rs 6,315.32 and SBI by Rs 3,461.48. Bajaj Finance had a Rs 7,813.58 crore correction. The six underperformers in aggregate were to the tune of Rs 49,294.13 crore in lost value.
Earnings take centre stage
Starting 12 July 2026, the eye will be on the Q1FY27 figures. Over 140 are due to report this week and how management talks about margins and demand will be what makes or breaks sector leadership.
It gets busy with 39 on the docket, among them Union Bank of India, HDB Financial, HDFC AMC, Angel One, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential and Groww. For the engineering and design side of things, we’ll be looking at Tata Elxsi and L&T Technology Services.
HCL Technologies is up first for the marquee list, and there is talk of a second interim dividend. After that, it is Wipro and Tech Mahindra, then Jio Financial, ITC Hotels, Polycab and BHEL.
A few things to have on the radar for the week:
– Earnings from Reliance, be it O2C, retail, new energy or telecom
– The private bank block: HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak and Yes
– IT’s big three: HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra
No change at the top
All the activity of the week has not upended the hierarchy of India’s premier listed companies. Reliance is still number one. You have HDFC and Airtel in tow, with ICICI and SBI right after them.
TCS and Bajaj Finance are in front of LIC, and L&T and HUL round out the top 10. It is a sign that investors are holding fire until they see the Q1 hard numbers.
Looking ahead
The divide we saw last week is of a market that will put up with index noise if the earnings are there. Should the banks make a case for loan growth and margins, you can count on HDFC’s Rs 35,808.09 crore move to be the example. Airtel and Reliance will remain in the spotlight for their part.
Geopolitics and crude are still variables, so the guidance is as important as the bottom line. A story of a beat and a raise would be enough to put the 0.25% and 0.26% drops of the week in the rearview and build on Friday’s momentum.
