New-Age Tech Stocks See Stock-Specific Action In Budget 2025 Week

SUMMARY

Fifteen out of the 31 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained in a range of 0.50% to over 30% this week

Drone companies DroneAcharya and ideaForge were the top two losers this week

In the broader market, Sensex gained 1.73% to end the week at 77,505.96 and Nifty 50 jumped 1.69% to end at 23,482.15

Emerging from an extended bearish investor sentiment that continued for a better part of January, the broader Indian equities market saw a revival in the week leading up to the Union Budget 2025-26.

While benchmark indices gained this weak despite impact from factors such as anticipations about the budget, concerns over policies of the Donald Trump administration in the US, the rise of OpenAI rival Deepseek, and subdued financial performance of companies in Q3, the new-age tech stocks witnessed a mixed week.

Fifteen out of the 31 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained in a range of 0.50% to over 30% this week. After reporting an upbeat financial performance for Q3, car marketplace platform CarTrade emerged as the biggest gainer this week. The stock zoomed 30.73% to end the week at INR 1,758.10.

ixigo was the second biggest gainer after the company announced positive earnings. While its net profit halved year-on-year (YoY) to INR 15.54 Cr in Q3 FY25 on tax outgo, its operating revenue surged 42% to INR 241.76 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 170.55 Cr in Q3 FY24.

Ecommerce-focussed SaaS company Unicommerce was the third biggest gainer, with its shares jumping 12.39% to end the week at INR 159.15. The company, which reported its Q3 results after market hours on Friday (January 31), saw its net profit climb 62.1% YoY to INR 6.29 Cr and revenue from contracts jumping 26% YoY to INR 32.74 Cr

The upbeat results led to a bull run and the company’s shares gained as much as 13.37% during the intraday trade on the budget day.

Meanwhile, PB Fintech, Fino Payments Bank and MapmyIndia, which reported upbeat financial numbers this week, saw their shares gain 1.25%, 1.52% and 2.76%, respectively, this week.

Meanwhile, shares of FirstCry rallied 7.58% to end the week at INR 506.55. The gains came after brokerage JM Financial shared a bullish projection on the stock on January 24.

The brokerage firm gave the company’s shares a ‘Buy’ rating, with a price target of INR 667. In a report, JM Financial observed that the company’s shares had declined almost 28% since January 1.

“We believe the decline has been exacerbated by the impending pre-IPO shareholders’ lock-in expiry on Feb 13, 2025. With almost 60% of FirstCry’s share capital becoming eligible to trade, the size is certainly large enough to move the share price significantly. However, our cost of acquisition analysis suggests that the larger shareholders of FirstCry are already sitting on significant gains, considering the amount liquidated at IPO and value of remaining investment as on date,” the brokerage said.

Nykaa, MobiKwik, and Ola Electric were among the other gainers this week.

Meanwhile, shares of 16 companies fell in a range of 0.30% to a little over 11%. Drone companies DroneAcharya and ideaForge were the top two losers this week.

ideaForge was the biggest loser, with its shares plunging 11.36% to end the week at INR 480.05.

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Meanwhile, DroneAcharya’s shares came under selling pressure this week after the company’s board decided to split the face value of equity shares from INR 10 per share to INR 2 per share. Besides, its compliance officer Harshal Kher also resigned.

DroneAcharya’s shares touched a 52-week low of INR 99.10 during the intraday trade on Saturday (February 1), before recovering a bit to INR 100.50, still down 8.76% over the week.

Other losers this week included Paytm, TAC Infosec, Swiggy, Honasa, and Awfis.

In the broader market, Sensex gained 1.73% to end the week at 77,505.96 and Nifty 50 jumped 1.69% to end at 23,482.15.

Presenting her eighth consecutive budget on Saturday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharman said that no income tax would be payable for up to INR 12 Lakh under the new tax regime. The move is expected to increase the disposable income for the country’s middle class and lead to a rise in consumer spending.

Despite this, the broader market ended on a muted note on Saturday. While Sensex gained 0.01%, Nifty 50 declined 0.11%.

“Technically, Nifty defended its 21-Days Simple Moving Average (21-DSMA) support and formed a small red candle, with 21-DSMA around 23,280 acting as immediate support, while 23,640 and 23,800 serve as short-term resistance levels. As long as the index holds 23,280, traders are advised to follow a buy-on-dips strategy,” Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP of technical and derivatives research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates, said.

Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, attributed the market’s reaction to the budget to the modest 10% YoY increase in capex for FY26 falling short of expectations. He said that the market will begin to factor in the broader benefits to the economy and companies due to an increase in disposable incomes and improvement in ease of doing business over the course of the year.

Now, let’s take a look at the performance of new-age tech stocks this week.

The overall market capitalisation of the 31 new-age tech stocks under Inc24’s coverage increased to $83.77 Bn at the end of this week from $81.98 Bn at the end of last week.

ideaForge Crashes On Weak Financials

ideaForge reported a net loss of INR 24.02 Cr in Q3 FY25 this week as against a net profit of INR 14.80 Cr in the same quarter previous year. Operating revenue plunged 81% to INR 17.61 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 90.89 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

The company’s CEO Ankit Mehta cited elections and low government spending for the sharp fall in the revenue.

Following the results, the company’s shares touched a 52-week low of INR 390.20 on Wednesday. However, the stock staged a slight recovery in the following days. Despite this, it ended 11.36% lower from last week at INR 480.05.

CarTrade’s Strong Q3 Show

After touching an all-time high at INR 1,834.95 on Saturday, CarTrade’s shares settled at INR 1,758.10. With this, the company’s shares ended 30.73% higher from last Friday’s close. The stock has gained 15.73% year-to-date.

Earlier this week, the company posted a consolidated net profit of INR 45.53 Cr in Q3 FY25 against a loss of INR 23.55 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, operating revenue surged 27% to INR 176.21 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 138.58 Cr in Q3 FY24.

CarTrade’s EBITDA jumped 98% to INR 50.07 Cr in Q3 FY25 from INR 25.35 Cr in the same quarter last year. Sequentially, it spiked 53% from INR 32.70 Cr.