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Financial services firm Equirus Securities has released a press note on the preview of Q2FY26 earnings across sectors.Equirus universe companies’ revenue is set to grow 9% in 2QFY26, with EBITDA/PAT both up by 9%, drivenby strong OMCs but held back by BFSI. Ex-BFSI, EBITDA/PAT rise 16%/19%; ex-OMC,EBITDA/PAT growth is 6%/5%. Mid-caps are expected to deliver strong high-teen earningsgrowth, outpacing large and small caps, though sales growth remains similar across caps.

Autos

In Q2FY26, overall, 2-Wheeler wholesales rose 10% YoY, with domestic volumes up 7% YoY driven by channel stocking ahead of the festive season, while exports maintained strong momentum, growing 26% YoY. However, 2-Wheeler retail sales in the quarter increased only 1%, as customers postponed purchases following the GST cut announcement. Demand remained subdued through most of Q2 but recovered sharply during the Navratri festival, coinciding with the implementation of the GST cuts.

In Q2FY26, overall PV wholesales rose 3% YoY, as domestic wholesales declined 2% YoY with dealers cutting back on orders with OEMs post the GST cut announcement amid already elevated inventory levels ahead of the festive season. Meanwhile, exports registered a robust 24% YoY growth. PV retail sales increased 3% YoY, with demand being subdued between August 15 and September 21 but rebounding sharply during the Navratri festival, coinciding with the implementation of the GST cuts.

Overall MHCV truck wholesales are expected to rise 6-7% YoY in Q2FY26, while the MHCV bus segment remained largely flat. OEMs continued to keep discounting under control. The LCV segment is projected to grow 13–15% YoY.

OEM margins are expected to improve sequentially, supported by operating leverage benefits from higher volumes. Realizations for 2W manufacturers are likely to rise on account of a favorable product mix, while Maruti’s realizations are expected to decline due to an adverse mix.

Within the tyre segment, replacement volumes are expected to grow high-single digit, OEM volumes are expected to grow mid-single digit while exports are expected to be moderate. Margins of tyre companies are expected to improve QoQ due to softening of RM prices.

Ancillary companies serving Domestic 2W OEMs are expected to do well on YoY basis compared to 4W and export-oriented ancillaries. Margins of ancillary companies are expected to improve driven by operating leverage benefits.

Top picks: Hero Motocorp and Lumax Industries

Building Materials

Demand from new construction stayed weak for late-stage materials like tiles and bathware, while organized wood panel players saw some recovery from mkt. share gains. Paint demand was hit by prolonged monsoons, recovery likely in 3Q26.

Top Picks: APL Apollo, Cera, Greenpanel, Carysil

Construction

Recently NHAI has introduced various changes in the bidding norms like

a) Tightening the net-worth criteria- committed equity to be considered for net worth calculation

b) Awarding projects at 90% land acquisition

c) bringing in additional performance security for bidders who have quoted abnormally low prices

d) Restricting Number of Projects per Engineer for Consultancy Firms etc which will benefit the entire industry especially the listed players in the medium to long term. NHAI plans to bid out project’s worth ~Rs3.4tn in near to medium term - of which HAM constitutes 72%, BoT- 18% and EPC-10% which will boost the overall revenue visibility once it translates into awarding.

Majority of infrastructure players have already started venturing into new segments like Mining, Power Transmission, Railways Ropeways, MMLP, Solar power etc., diversifying their business risks. With NHAI awarding expected to pick up and various state governments likely to come up with new expressways overall revenue visibility is expected to improve gradually. Execution challenges are likely to recede gradually as regulatory approvals are likely to fall in place. Stable commodity prices and interest rate regime will ensure healthy cash-flows. Unlocking equity from HAM/BOT assets would be a key monitorable. Equirus Securities continues to prefer companies with a lower order book base, strong balance sheet (less risk of equity dilution) and better working capital management.

Top picks: PNC Infratech, PSP Projects, H G Infra Engineering, RITES etc.

Financials

Key theme for 2QFY26 will be:

* Trends in NIMs given aggressive deposit rate cuts to offset the REPO/MCLR cuts will be a key monitorable. Equirus Securities expects most banks to report sub 10bps NIM compression except Axis (~15bps), DCB Bank (~15bps) and CUBK (~12bps).

* Credit growth is likely to improve QoQ with growth ~4% QoQ for most players. Expect healthy loan growth trends for BOB (+6% QoQ), HDFC Bank (+4% QoQ), Kotak (+4% QoQ), RBK (+6% QoQ). Equirus Securities expects deposit growth to lag advances growth.

* Equirus Securities expects asset quality trends to remain healthy across most segments of corporate and retail credit. Trends are likely to improve in MFI and credit cards. Incrementally the research houseexpect some uptick in delinquencies in vehicle finance segment.

* Treasury gains are likely to be soft Key things to look for:

* Asset quality Trends in Commercial Vehicle loans

* PAR levels and credit costs in MFI segment and commentary on collections in 2Q.

* Comments on trends in unsecured retail disbursements and delinquency trends.

* Mix of loan growth across banks

* Comments upon competitive environment.

Top Picks: Axis bank, HDFC Bank

Capital Markets (AMC)

During the quarter, broader equity indices (NSE500) decreased by 3.7% on a closing basis while on average basis, it increased by 3.4% QoQ.

Net flows in core equity schemes increased to Rs 427bn/Rs 334bn in Jul’25/Aug’25. This is largely on account of increased gross flows of Rs 751bn / Rs 610bn in Jul’25/Aug’25. Further, SIP flows remained strong and reached new highs at Rs 283bn in Aug’25.

Overall MF QAAUM for 2QFY26 stood at ~Rs 77.1trn (+16.5% YoY/+6.9% QoQ). Based on daily AUM, Nippon AMC’s market share in equity/hybrid AUM remained broadly flat on a QoQ basis on account of strong performance of their equity/hybrid schemes in the key 3- year timeframe whereas market share of HDFCAMC declined 8bps on an average basis during the quarter. On an average basis, both ABSL AMC and UTI AMC continues to lose market share. Also, based on their calculations, among analysed equity schemes, estimated net flow market share in major equity schemes for NAM and HDFCAMC remains higher than their equity AUM market share.

Equirus Securities expects sequential EBITDA growth for the listed AMCs to be in the range of 3-6% driven by health QAAUM growth across AMCs while overall earnings are likely to decline sequentially on account of lower treasury income. We expect NAM to see ~6% QoQ growth in EBITDA whereas HDFCAMC likely to report ~3% QoQ growth in EBITDA on account of higher ESOP costs.

Overall earnings for all listed AMCs are expected to decline in the range of ~15-18% on QoQ basis, barring UTIAMC (down ~42% QoQ) on account of lower treasury income. Treasury income is expected to decline materially in this quarter on account of MTM losses in both equity treasury book as well as debt treasury book.

For Prudent, Equirus Securities expects to report ~6% increase in average AUM on account of ~7% gap between closing AUM and average AUM at the end of Jun'25. SIP book to increase further in Sep'25 and expect it to be in excess of Rs 10.5bn. Equirus Securities expects MF revenue yields to be around 89-90bps and are building in ~10% QoQ growth in insurance revenues (-5% qoq) on account of seasonality. We build in earnings of Rs 519mn (flat qoq/yoy). For Nuvama, earnings are likely to decrease by ~10% on a qoq basis owing to ~20%/15% qoq decline in asset services and IE/IB revenues respectively. For 360One, earnings are likely to increase ~5% qoq owing to ARR AUM growth of 2.4% qoq and healthy transactional revenues (incl. B&K revenues).

For RTAs, QAAUM growth for CAMS/KFintech in 2QFY6 stood at ~7%/6.8% qoq. For KFintech, Equirus Securities expects EBITDA to increase materially (~17% qoq) on account of seasonality in issuer solution business whereas for CAMS, sequential EBITDA growth to be limited (~4.5% qoq) due to remaining impact of re-pricing of the large contract which took place in 4QFY25.

For CDSL/NSDL, overall depository income is likely to increase sequentially on account of strong IPO/CA income as well as e-voting income. For NSDL, annual issuer charge is likely to increase further due to strong additions in the unlisted companies. Equirus Securitiesexpects EBITDA margins for CDSL to improve to 52.0% from 50.6% QoQ while for NSDL, it is likely to improve to 31.8% vs 30.5% QoQ.

Key things to look for: i) Outlook in terms of fresh flows and AUM growth; ii) Comments on TERs/yields; iii) Opex trends for FY26; iv) traction in newer businesses in RTAs

NBFC

Loan growth in 2QFY26 is expected to remain divergent across segments. Gold financiers are likely to deliver strong yoy growth, supported by sustained gold price momentum. Muthoot Finance is expected to post robust growth of 40-42% yoy, while Fedbank Financial is likely to deliver ~13% growth.

Equirus Securitiesbelieves vehicle financiers have witnessed good festive period with demand in PVs, aided by GST rate revisions, but CV demand sustainability remains a key monitorable. Equirus SecuritiesexpectsCholamandalam Investment & Finance and Shriram Finance to deliver ~21%/~15% YoY.

On the Housing finance coverage front, Equirus SecuritiesexpectsAavas Finance, Home First Finance, and Can Fin to witness a revival in disbursements in KA/TN, supporting healthy loan growth in the range of 9–17% YoY. Power Financiers would post loan growth in the guided range of ~10-11% YoY.

Equirus Securitiesexpects NBFCs to see margin expansion on account of the pass-through benefit of the systemic rate-cuts on the liability side. Further, with no material benefit of the rate-cut passed on the asset side, we expect margin improvement – especially for vehicle financiers, microfinanciers and MSME financiers. For gold financier like Muthoot Finance, margins are expected to normalise in 2QFY26 after the one-off benefits seen in the previous quarter.

Diversified NBFC such as L&T Finance would see positive margin trends and fee income from rising rural disbursements.

* Credit costs and asset quality trends are expected to diverge across segments in 2QFY26. MSME lenders may see an uptick in stress due to geography-specific challenges and pressures in sectors such as trading, textiles, gems & jewellery, and construction.

Equirus Securitiesexpects Vehicle financiers to see continued asset quality issue due to weak utilization levels due to prolonged monsoon and soft economic activity. Asset quality improvement for housing financiers has been slower than historical trends, while power financiers are expected to see a stable performance with no major negative surprises or asset resolutions.

SFBs (MFI and rural centril lenders) and NBFC-MFIs are witnessing month-on-month improvement in collection efficiencies leading to lower incremental slippages. Disbursements are also reviving for these entities, including in regions such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, contributing to a positive momentum in loan growth. Most SFBs have shown healthy deposit growth aided by improving CASA share lowering their CoF, however trends of increasing secured asset mix continue.

Overall, 2QFY26 is expected to show a mixed performance across lending segments. Gold and housing financiers are likely to register healthy loan growth, while vehicle finance growth remains moderate due to weak CV demand and utilization challenges. Margins are expected to improve for most lenders. Credit costs and asset quality trends are diverging, with MSME lenders facing elevated stress, vehicle financiers impacted by monsoon-related utilization issues, and housing and power financiers maintaining stable performance. SFBs and NBFCMFIs are seeing improving collection efficiencies and revival in disbursements, contributing to positive loan growth momentum.

Key things to look for:

1) Commentary on credit cost for FY26 for SFBs/MFI lenders

2) Asset quality trends for Affordable Housing Financiers

3) Competition intensity in the gold financing

4) Update on growth visibility post GST 2.0 implementation in PV/CV (subsegments) segments for vehicle financiers

Top Picks: Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Fedbank Financial Services, L&T Finance

Consumer Durables & Discretionary

RAC volumes fell ~20% YoY in Jul–Aug but rebounded post-Sept 22 on festive demand and GST cuts; margins remained under pressure. W&C to sustain mid-teen growth with cables outpacing wires. ECD stays weak amid softness in fans and appliances, impacting margins.

Consumer Staples

Consumer Staples: The sector is likely to post ~7% YoY revenue growth in 2Q, with flattish EBITDA. GST 2.0 slowed primary-channel stocking, compressing reported growth and adding MoM volatility. Extended monsoon and restocking pause led to mixed category trends — summer and RTD/beverages softened, pricing-led staples held up, beer volumes stayed patchy.

Staples pack:

* Marico, Tata Consumer and Mrs. Bectors are expected to post double-digit (DD) revenue growth, underpinned primarily by pricing tailwinds.

* Dabur and PGHH are likely to report mid-single digit (MSD) growth (base effects moderating YoY comparatives).

* Godrej Consumer (GCPL) is likely to be impacted by softer soaps and household insecticide primary offtake.

* Britannia (BRIT) and Nestlé (NEST) should report MSD growth largely driven by pricing; however, mix and channel effects may mute margin upside.

* Emami and Colgate-Palmolive (CLGT) are expected to report YoY revenue declines given category seasonality, competition and primary-channel disruption.

Alcoholic beverages (alcobev): Volume recovery remains uneven. Beer volumes look patchy — softness persists in large states such as Karnataka and Kerala — while IMFL/spirits show healthier momentum from premiumization and channel scale-up in Andhra. United Breweries (UBBL) should post modest beer volume growth (~Mid-single digits) with margin pressure from input and mix effects.

UNSP/Radico/peers: P&A (premium & above) continuums display differentiated growth: we expect UNSP to post single-digit P&A volume growth and Radico (RDCK) to lead with stronger P&A expansion (management commentary and broker notes signal the same). Statelevel excise moves (e.g., Maharashtra) are a key downside risk for IMFL volumes in coming quarters.

Luggage/discretionary: Performance is disparate. VIP faces a near-term washout driven by management transition and discount-led retail dynamics; growth is likely modest. Safari, benefiting from execution and retail traction, should continue to outpace the pack and deliver mid-teens growth. Top Picks: Marico, Godrej Consumer, Zydus Wellness

Industrials

New project announcements slowed, suggesting weak order inflows through FY26 with recovery from FY27. 2QFY26 execution stayed strong on stable commodities and backlogs. Margins resilient but may moderate; defence likely to post average quarter but strong medium-term pipeline. Watch project ordering, margins, exports, and working capital amid global slowdown and US tariffs

Information Technology

Expect higher qoq Sales growth in most of Top 6 large caps in 2Q vs. 1Q: Increased macro concerns (started in Mar’25) has been keeping enterprise clients to remain cautious on incremental Tech led Services spend. But, at the same time demand trends are stable qoq in 2Q.

Hence, with likely conversion of increasing deal wins (on cost-take-out side) into revenues, Equirus Securities expects most of the large caps to show some improvement in qoq CC US$ Sales growth rates in 2Q vs. 1QFY26.

Equirus Securitiesexpects top 6 large caps to register qoq growth of flat to 2.1% in US$ Sales in CC terms in 2QFY26E. Equirus Securitiesexpects marginal positive impact of 2- 28bps qoq from cross currency tailwinds across most of the top 6 large caps in 2Q. Equirus Securitiesexpects healthy sales performance from some of the midcap companies incl.

Coforge, PSYS, R Systems and eClerx with expected US$ Sales growth in the range of 3.6% to 5.8% qoq (PSYS at the lower end and Coforge at the upper end) in CC terms. We expect CC US$ Sales growth to remain tepid in most the ER&D companies (led by soft demand continuing in Mobility/Auto) with LTTS to lead with expected 1.6% CC qoq growth in US$ Sales in 2Q.

Expect healthy execution on EBITM: Considering tailwinds from currency benefits (INR/US$ depreciated by c.3% qoq in 2Q on an average for most companies) and benign supply-side issues, cost optimisation and productivity led gains, we expect good execution on EBITM to continue in 2Q with qoq dip of 36bps (for Wipro IT Services) to increase of 71bps in top-6 large caps.

Demand commentary likely to remain cautious: We expect demand commentary to remain cautious (unless some certainty relating to tariff related issues emerges ahead). However, we believe vendors are still witnessing better demand tailwinds in BFSI. For 2QFY26E, we expect mix trends on deal TCV (on qoq basis). Key thing to watch will be management commentary regarding deal pipeline and any further delays in decision-making regarding deal awards and start/ramp up of earlier won deals.

Expect some tweak in Infosys’s FY26E Sales growth guidance: We expect Infosys to guide for 2.0-3.0% CC growth in US$ Sales (vs. current growth guidance of 1-3%; inorganic growth contribution from Versent Group unlikely to be factored into growth guidance given its pending closure) with no change in its EBITM guidance of 20-22% for FY26E.

Equirus Securitiesexpects no change in HCLT’s CC US$ Sales growth guidance of 3-5% (c.2-4% Organic) both for Services & Consol. US$ Sales with no change in its Consol. EBITM guidance of 17-18% for FY26E. Equirus Securities expects Wipro to guide for (-) 0.5% to (+) 1.5% qoq growth in IT Services US$ Sales for 3QFY26E in CC terms.

Remain selective: Equirus Securitiesbelieves that sector valuations will remain under check and range bound at least in the near-medium term considering

Volatile macro environment (led by increasing geo-political issues/tariff related uncertainty)

Any higher demand from clients to pass on AI led productivity gains and (iii) rising investors caution related to any further changes in outsourcing/visa related rulings from USA unless further clarity 

emerges on most of the above issues ahead. However, we also believe that client may not materially postpone their investment in adopting GenAI/Agentic AI, for which they may drive further savings by awarding cost take out deals to invest into AI led transformation. We recommend remaining selective and prefer Infosys/TechM amongst large caps and prefer Mphasis/Zensar/KPIT/eClerx amongst midcaps on a relative basis.

Top Picks: We recommend remaining selective and prefer Infosys/TechM amongst large caps and prefer Mphasis/Zensar/KPIT/eClerx amongst midcaps on a relative basis.

Healthcare

2Q always has reminiscence to higher acute biz in domestic owing to seasonality, but this time quarter is going to be impacted owing to GST led channel destocking. Moreover, across board (barring Lupin and Alkem) US biz will be subdued on the account of dearth of high value launches and incremental pricing pressure in gRevlimid. Lupin will see strong performance during this quarter led by full quarter contribution from gJynarque, and launch of Glucagon. Alkem will see benefit of outpacing IPM growth and decline in Pen G prices. Meantime, Dr Reddy, Zydus, Natco, Cipla will see impact of incremental erosion in gRevlimid. Top Picks: Lupin, Alkem Laboratories, Lupin and Torrent Pharma

Retail

After a weak 1Q for players such as VMART we expect better demand trends during 2Q led by preponement of festive season. For the players such as ARVINDFA, while the quarter started on a strong note similar to last quarter, however post PM Modi's announcement of GST rationalization, demand saw some temporary slowdown from 15th August.

However, the same has improved materially post 22nd September. Despite a month's demand slowdown, Equirus Securities expects Arvind Fashions to report ~12% topline growth. The same demand slowdown trend has been visible for METRO as well and we model a 10% topline growth during 2Q for METRO. For VMART, while reported SSSg has been 11% but in our view normalized SSSg, adjusting early festivities should be ~5-6%. For PAGE, we model a midsingle digit sort of a volume growth. For Trent, we model a 17% topline growth which would be store expansion led whereas SSSg would be flattish. For Go Colors we model a negative 2% SSSg and a topline growth of 6%. For Jewellery retailers, the value growth should continue to support overall value growth. As Gold prices are up by ~45% on a yoy basis, we shall see some pressure on volume. For TJL, considering 12 store openings on a TTM basis, we model a 32% topline growth.

* On the margins front, for TRENT while we expect GM to decline due to unfavourable mix but led by opex control we model ~52bps of EBITDAM improvement. For PAGE, similar to last quarter we see a strong GM show, but in the absence of scale flow through to EBITDAM will be restricted to 150bps. For VMART, we expect ~150bps of GM decline led by lower contribution from LimeRoad and higher share of discounted sales, however with moderate increase in opex and SSSg, EBITDAM shall see ~90bps of expansion.

For Go Colors, while we model a 60bps of improvement in GM but led by weak SSSg we shall see ~55bps of EBITDAM decline. For TJL, sequentially we expect a flattish sort of GM performance, whereas EBITDAM may decline by ~20bps led by higher opex. For ARVINDFA, we model a 40bps of GM expansion, but EBITDAM expansion will be restricted to 9bps due to higher opex.

* From retail coverage perspective, we believe ARVINDFA has managed GST transition well and ~12% topline growth seems achievable. For VMART, growth trends have improved sequentially - while a part of it was led by early festivities but even a normalized SSSg of ~5- 6% seems encouraging.

Top Picks: Arvind Fashions - While the growth rates have moderated compared to last quarter, but this is in the backdrop of demand slowdown post GST rationalization. V-Mart - Growth rates have improved sequentially. Despite an unfavourable mix, moderate increase in opex and SSSg to drive EBITDAM expansion

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