Stocks to Watch 2026: Airtel profit falls, Tata loss

Why these stocks are in focus

The quarterly earnings season has kept trading momentum centred on results-led moves and corporate updates. Several widely tracked names including Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, LIC, Bharti Airtel, and Hero MotoCorp have been highlighted as “stocks to watch” following Q3FY26 updates and pre-result positioning. Alongside earnings, investors are also tracking governance changes, index reshuffles, and fundraising activity across telecom and other sectors. The day’s focus list also widened at points to include Infosys, Wipro, Ola Electric, IndiGo, and Vodafone Idea.

Bharti Airtel’s Q3FY26 profit drops nearly 55%

Bharti Airtel reported a sharp decline in consolidated net profit for Q3FY26, with profit down by almost 55% to Rs 6,630.5 crore. The company attributed the fall to higher network operating costs, statutory fees, and higher expenses on employees. In the same quarter a year ago, consolidated profit stood at Rs 14,781.2 crore. The update also noted that profit on a sequential basis was lower by about 2%.

These cost-linked pressures are being watched closely because they influence how quickly telecom earnings can expand even when subscriber and usage metrics improve. Airtel is also one of the most traded stocks in the market, so earnings volatility can spill over into broader sector sentiment.

Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles posts Q3FY26 loss

Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 3,483 crore for Q3FY26. The company linked the depressed results substantially to a cyber incident at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), its British arm. In Q3FY25, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles had posted a net profit of Rs 5,485 crore, as per a regulatory filing referenced in the update.

The swing from profit to loss makes the stock a key earnings-season monitor, particularly because investors often use JLR performance and disruption risk as a proxy for group-level execution and resilience.

Pre-result trade: price moves flagged for Airtel, Tata Motors PV, Hero

Ahead of December quarter results later in the day on February 5, shares of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Hero MotoCorp, and Bharti Airtel were reported to have fallen by up to 1.5%. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles was cited as trading 1.5% lower at Rs 369.65. Bharti Airtel was cited as slipping 2% to Rs 1,988.7. Hero MotoCorp was cited as trading 1% lower at Rs 5,788.5.

The same set of notes also highlighted recent performance trends. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles stock was said to have fallen 18% in 2025. Bharti Airtel stock was said to have gained 32.6% in 2025 and to be down 4% so far in 2026. Hero MotoCorp stock was said to have gained about 39% in 2025 and be up 1.4% year-to-date, while TVS Motor rose 57% last year and has traded largely flat this year.

What brokerages said on Bharti Airtel

Brokerage expectations were also referenced for Airtel, adding near-term trading context. Ambit Capital maintained a “Buy” rating with a price target of Rs 2,528 on the stock. The brokerage expects 2.4% sequential ARPU growth, led by the elimination of entry-level plans.

Centrum Capital also carried a “Buy” rating with a price target of Rs 2,444. It expects the company’s India wireless subscriber base to rise by 3 million sequentially. These are expectations rather than reported numbers, but they often shape positioning around result events and management commentary.

Promoter block deal: Indian Continent Investment’s planned sale

In a separate development, Bharti Airtel’s shares were flagged for a large block trade, with promoter entity Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL) set to offload around 3.43 crore shares through the block deal window. The stake sale represents about 0.56% of Airtel’s equity. The transaction value was cited at roughly $106 million, which was also presented as Rs 7,195 crore at the offer price.

Block deals of this size tend to matter for near-term supply, price discovery, and sentiment, even when the underlying business thesis remains unchanged.

Governance changes: Bharti and Singtel amend agreement

Another corporate update noted that Bharti and Singtel agreed to amend the existing shareholders agreement. Singtel relinquished certain key reserved rights, and the amendments were described as removing redundancies and improving clarity in governance provisions. Such changes are typically watched for what they imply about shareholder alignment and decision-making frameworks.

Sensex rejig: IndiGo replaces Tata Motors PV

Index changes can create mechanical flows, and the updates included a Sensex rejig where IndiGo is set to replace Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles. The change was associated with expected inflows of nearly $114 million for IndiGo and an outflow of $190 million for Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles. While these are flow estimates, they can influence short-term trading, especially around the effective date.

Vodafone Idea funding update and other listed triggers

Vodafone Idea Telecom Infra, an arm of Vodafone Idea, raised funds worth Rs 3,300 crore via NCDs. The arm plans to use the Rs 3,300 crore to repay its payment obligations to the company.

Separately, Ola Electric confirmed that its promoter completed a one-time, limited monetisation of a portion of his personal shareholding. The watchlist also referenced IT majors Infosys and Wipro as names likely to catch attention.

Key market levels and bond yield mentioned in the feed

The market commentary embedded in the feed referenced index levels between 25,560 and 25,850, and also pointed to the 10-year bond yield at 6.67% as an input traders were tracking. It also referenced options positioning, including call writers with open interest cited above 25,700.

Snapshot table: reported numbers and key events

What to track next

With multiple overlapping triggers, investors are likely to watch management commentary for clarity on cost trends at Airtel, and the operational impact of the cited JLR cyber incident on Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles’ performance. Block deal execution and index-related flows may also influence near-term price action. The next set of scheduled quarterly announcements and corporate actions referenced in the feed is expected to keep headline risk elevated.