Deep dives on algorithmic markets, generative models, engineering decisions, and the mechanics of an institutional edge.
CG Power trades near 115x earnings while EPS has grown just ~7% a year. So what is the market actually paying for? A data-first look at the premium, the semiconductor bet behind it, and what the ownership shifts are quietly saying.
Mukul Pandit
13 Aug 2026
Symbiotec is a genuine global No.1 in steroid and hormone APIs - 38.2% world share in corticosteroids, US-FDA and EU-GMP plants, 26.6% EBITDA margins. The grey-market premium is running 40%+. And I am still sitting this one out. Here is the uncomfortable part the loud GMP hides: 91% of the issue is an OFS (a promoter/PE cash-out, not growth capital), it is priced at ~58x on modest growth, its core markets grow just 1-3% a year, and the RHP carries a heavy promoter pledge, tax litigation and a Rs 100 cr civil claim.
ITC is one of India's most profitable companies and a dividend machine - yet it has trailed almost every index it belongs to for the better part of a decade. A cigarette business throws off ~80% of profit and funds everything else; the FMCG, paperboard, agri and (now demerged) hotels businesses add revenue at far thinner margins. This is a full study of what you are actually buying, why the market discounts it, and the right reasons to own it - or not.
India's No.1 air freight forwarder by AWBs (ranked #1 by World ACD four years running), in a >$250bn logistics market, priced at ~32-38x when listed peers sit at 54x-1,548x. It looks like a steal. Then you find the other side: wafer-thin margins, borrowings up 75% in two years, and an open Economic Offences Wing FIR alleging ~Rs 480 cr of fraud with no provision made. My read inside.
On a friend's insistence I started reading up on the sugar sector, and some of what I found was eye-opening even for me. A sugar company is really three businesses. Four levers drive its earnings. Ethanol is the growth engine with a catch. And there is one efficiency number - the recovery rate - that quietly decides margins. Sharing all of it, plus a downloadable ready reckoner.
India's first standalone listed PE firm. Income ₹104cr to ₹158cr (FY24-26), FY26 PAT ₹82cr, priced at ~22x. Looks reasonable. But a smooth P&L hides two risks: carried interest makes earnings lumpy, and you are really buying an AMC whose fortunes ride on its own funds - with ~82% of fresh proceeds flowing straight back into them. Investable yes, low-risk no.
A ~Rs 2,949 crore block deal in Paytm's parent set off "the founder is cashing out" panic. He isn't. The seller on paper is Vijay Shekhar Sharma's entity Resilient, but the money flows to China's Antfin - the tail end of a 2023 arrangement built to clear India's FDI rules. Explained simply.
SEBI changed how the closing price is set for F&O stocks - from a 30-minute average to a proper auction. Explained like a school bell: why it matters, who it helps, who it makes life harder for, and the cautionary tale of Hong Kong's HSBC closing-auction shock.
Technocrats Plasma's ₹61 Cr IPO looks a steal - cheapest among peers at ~15.5x, ROCE ~49%, all fresh money, no founder selling. But just 10 clients drove ~84% of last year's sales. My honest read on why I would wait rather than chase listing day.
Credent Connect's ₹94 Cr IPO closed ~80x subscribed. It runs no labs - it is the picks-and-shovels behind them. Low margins and an acquisition-driven profit jump, but a tiny ~₹344 Cr valuation standing in front of a ₹1.54 lakh crore market. My honest long-term read.
For years the playbook was simple: FIIs sell, market falls. Not anymore. A demat boom from ~4 crore to ~23 crore accounts, relentless SIPs and rising DIIs mean domestic money now absorbs foreign selling - and in March 2025, DIIs overtook FIIs for the first time in 22 years.
Shiprocket's ₹1,617 Cr IPO closed ~99x subscribed. My honest retail read: nearly half is old investors cashing out (some at a loss), it still loses money so no dividends or near-term re-rating, and it priced as a down-round.
Nvidia lined up a $500 billion pool to fund AI data centres, and guaranteed the chips inside won't lose too much value. It is genuinely clever, and it quietly ties Nvidia's balance sheet to the AI boom staying strong. Here it is in plain English.
Milky Mist's ₹1,553 cr IPO: a genuinely differentiated, high-margin dairy business - but one still more leveraged than Dodla and Parag, and priced at ~85x earnings. My honest read on quality versus price.
Over squash, a friend raised a great question: won't forced ETF buying make BSE jump when it joins the Nifty 50? It sounds right. So we looked at the last 6 additions - five of six actually lagged the market on the way in, then recovered after.
Taj GVK just posted a ~4x jump in profit - but ₹283 crore of it is a one-time, non-cash accounting gain. Strip it out and the "5x P/E deep-value" story mostly disappears, leaving a genuinely good hotel business at a fair-ish price.
A ~₹1,370 crore pharma company quietly remaking itself - revenue and profit compounding at ~40% a year, debt paid down to almost zero, and a valuation ~40% below its peer floor. The earnings sprinted; the price only jogged.
For the third year running, Sakthi Sugars' auditors couldn't give a clean opinion - ₹252 crore of interest receivable sits on the books with no provision against it. Add loan defaults, overdue statutory dues, and fundamentals that have collapsed, and the picture gets hard to ignore.
An estimate turns a reaction into a decision. Part 3 of the series is about what a valuation actually does once the market moves – the margin of safety, why price-first trading fails most people, and what fundamental analysis really is.
Valuation is not a formula - it is a question: what is this business worth to its owners? Part 2 of the series reframes valuation as disciplined thinking, not spreadsheet math.
Ask an investor why they bought a stock and answers come easily. Ask what the business is worth, and the confidence disappears. Why so few retail investors ever value a company - and why it isn't entirely their fault.
A step-by-step walkthrough of Discounted Cash Flow analysis calibrated for the Indian equity market - from estimating free cash flows to choosing the right discount rate.
FII outflows can trigger 5% corrections in a week. DII buying absorbs them. Understanding these two opposing forces is essential for timing entries and exits in Indian equities.
A systematic multi-factor screening approach to filter the NSE universe down to high-probability investment candidates - without reading a single annual report first.
How to apply the father of value investing's simple but powerful intrinsic value formula to Indian equities - and where it works, and where it breaks down.
Different sectors lead the market at different stages of India's economic cycle. Knowing which sectors to overweight when can add 3–5% annually to your equity returns.
Net profit is an opinion. Free cash flow is a fact. Here's why the gap between these two metrics reveals the most important truth about an Indian company's financial health.
Price momentum - buying winners and avoiding losers - is one of the most well-documented return anomalies in global markets. Here is what the Indian data says, and how to implement it.
Promoter shareholding is one of the most India-specific signals in equity analysis. High stake is not always good. Low stake is not always bad. Here is how to read it correctly.
P/E is the most quoted valuation metric. EV/EBITDA is what institutional analysts actually use. Here is why, and how to choose the right multiple for each Indian sector.
SEBI's algorithmic trading regulations have evolved significantly. Retail investors using any automated or semi-automated strategy now operate under a specific regulatory framework. Here is the complete picture.