The market isn’t in the mood to pick sides on Friday. The Nifty is trading in a tight circle, flipping between red and green, stuck near 25,800 mark. The Nifty was down 54.05 points, holding near 25,800, while the Sensex slipped 89.10 points to hover around 84,400. Metals stayed firm, FMCG names dragged. Meanwhile, defence and shipping picked up momentum.
Here are the top movers and shakers at this hour:
Hindustan Unilever (HUL)
Hindustan Unilever’s share price dropped over 3% a day after it announced its Q2 FY26 results.. The GST rate change hit the company hard, nearly 40% of its portfolio shifted to a 5% tax slab, forcing price and grammage changes across more than a thousand SKUs. Home care volumes grew modestly, but beauty, personal care, and ice-cream lines were weak.
Jefferies trimmed FY26–FY27 earnings forecasts by around 3% but kept its ‘Buy’ rating intact, with a target price of Rs 3,050, about 18% above current levels. Near-term weakness, long-term patience – that’s the tone for now.
Colgate-Palmolive (India)
Colgate-Palmolive’s share price fell 3.8% to Rs 2,200 after the company posted a decline in Q2 profit. Margins were steady, but that didn’t help. The Street wanted signs of strong volume recovery, and there weren’t any. This made investors apprehensive but about immediate growth triggers.
Defence Stocks
Defence stocks extended their rally. Bharat Dynamics was up over 2%, while Bharat Electronics and Hindustan Aeronautics each gained close to 1%.
The Nifty India Defence Index was up 1.14%, trading at 8,255. Cochin Shipyard and Paras Defence added nearly 3% each, Mazagon Dock and Bharat Forge gained moderately, and Swan Defence locked in a 5% upper circuit.
Hindalco, NALCO, and Vedanta
Metal stocks stayed strong. NALCO jumped 5.3% to Rs 240, Hindalco climbed 4.3% to an all-time high of Rs 826, and Vedanta gained 3.7% to Rs 501.
On the London Metal Exchange, aluminium traded at $2,810 per tonne, up 1% after touching its highest level since mid-2022 earlier this week. The surge followed reports of a major output cut at Century Aluminium’s Iceland smelter due to electrical equipment failure, raising supply concerns.
Shipping Corporation of India (SCI)
Shipping Corporation of India share price gained 3.7% to Rs 259.50 before easing to Rs 256, still up around 2.3%. The stock has now risen about 14% this week.
The steady buying comes as the company moves ahead with restructuring plans and benefits from improving freight activity.
Thyrocare Technologies
Thyrocare share price rose 1.75% to Rs 1,273.80 after a major promoter transaction hit the market. Docon, the company’s promoter group entity, sold 53.33 lakh shares, roughly worth Rs 667 crore, at an average price of Rs 1,252.03 per share.
Following the sale, Docon’s holding fell from 70.98% to 60.93%. The company clarified that Docon continues to remain a promoter despite the stake cut.
The stock held firm after the news, rising 1.62% earlier in the day to Rs 1,272.20 and valuing the diagnostics chain at around Rs 6,700 crore. Over the past six months, the stock has gained more than 50%, trading near the upper band of its 52-week range between Rs 658 -1,474 per share.