Shares of Godfrey Phillips surged more than 6% on Monday after rival ITC‘s June-quarter earnings prompted brokerages to turn more optimistic on the cigarette sector following the tax-related disruption earlier this year.

Godfrey Phillips rose over 6% to Rs 2,269.90 on the NSE, putting the stock on track for its biggest single-day gain since April 29. ITC shares also climbed more than 4% to Rs 293.

ITC on Friday reported a 27% year-on-year (YoY) fall in standalone net profit at Rs 3,579 crore for the April-June quarter of FY27, as compared to Rs 4,911 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations, however, rose 28% YoY to Rs 26,943 crore during the quarter under review, from Rs 21,070 crore in the year-ago period.

ITC’s cigarette business saw a revenue surge of 81% YoY to Rs 15,384 crore. Nomura upgraded its rating on the shares of ITC to ‘Buy’ from ‘Reduce’ and raised its target price to Rs 340 from Rs 300, implying a 21% upside. The brokerage said the worst appears to be over and believes the stock now offers an attractive risk-reward profile.

Also read | ITC Q1 Results: Standalone profit falls 27% YoY to Rs 3,579 crore, but revenue grows 28%

Nomura noted that cigarette volume declined 5% year on year in the first quarter, better than its own and Street expectations of a decline of over 10%, although EBIT fell more than expected.
It expects the steps taken by the company to improve profitability to help restore EBIT per stick to pre-tax hike levels by the fourth quarter of FY27. The brokerage also believes further price hikes in Premium Deluxe and Regular cigarette segments should support pricing growth from the second quarter, while an improving product mix could offset the impact of downtrading. JM Financial also noted that the cigarette segment of ITC delivered a resilient performance amid regulatory challenges.

Motilal Oswal, however, struck a cautious tone, saying that in the cigarette business, the pass-through of the tax hike to consumers is still in progress. The sharp tax increase and competition from illicit cigarettes would take time to normalise, it said, adding that a calibrated price hike will continue to impact cigarette EBIT performance in the coming quarters.

Godfrey Phillips share price

Godfrey Phillips shares have gained over 1% in the past week and 3% in the last month, but remain down more than 2% in 2026 so far. The stock, along with other cigarette makers, came under pressure earlier this year after the government raised taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products.

Also read | Indian cigarette makers ITC, Godfrey Phillips, VST Industries see revenue and profit decline after tax hike

In February, the government increased the GST on cigarettes and tobacco products to a flat 40% and replaced the compensation cess with an additional excise duty ranging from Rs 2,100 to Rs 8,500 per 1,000 sticks, depending on cigarette length.

Over the longer term, the stock has declined 23% in the past year but delivered returns of 231% over three years and 550% over five years.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Rights issue by the e-mobility arm of Greaves Cotton Ltd secured 100% subscription on Monday, according to a regulatory filing by the company on the BSE. The issue was fully subscribed by GEML’s existing shareholders, including Greaves Cotton and Abdul Latif Jameel Green Mobility Solutions (ALJ), in proportion to their existing shareholding.According to chairman Karan Thapar, GCL’s strong balance sheet enabled the company to selectively invest in businesses with clear long-term potential. “With its manufacturing footprint, engineering depth, expanding portfolio and focus on Building for Bharat, Greaves Electric Mobility is well placed to sustain its market-outperforming growth, and create enduring value,” He said, as per the company’s regulatory filing.

“This capital will help us accelerate innovation and further strengthen our product pipeline,” said MD Vikas Singh.

The capital infusion is aimed at strengthening GEML’s next phase of growth towards building Next Generation products, Battery Management Systems, Power Trains and New Age Technology development. “As India’s electric mobility market moves towards mass adoption, we remain focused on supporting the country’s clean mobility goals through differentiated products Built for Bharat, stronger technology capabilities and reliable mobility solutions for our customers.” He added.

GEML has decided to defer its proposed public listing, opting not to avail itself of Sebi’s extension for the offer. The company said it remains committed to pursuing the listing at an appropriate time, subject to market conditions, regulatory approvals and other relevant considerations.
The company also has a longstanding association with the Indian armed forces, with its products supporting a range of defence and naval applications.
Through this latest investment, the company aims to accelerate performance of its electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler segments with a growing portfolio of products, an expanding retail and service network, and continued investments in engineering, manufacturing and customer experience.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman drew widespread criticism online this week after suggesting that parents use the company’s new ChatGPT Work product to generate a personalized morning podcast for their children ahead of the school-day commute, with critics arguing the idea encroaches on one of the few remaining stretches of uninterrupted time parents have to talk with their kids.

In a post on X on Friday, Altman described what he called a “cool use case” for the product. “connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests,” he wrote, in lowercase, before adding that parents could then have ChatGPT “make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.” every morning for the drive to school.

The suggestion quickly generated significant pushback. Alex Hirsch, creator of the animated series “Gravity Falls,” offered one of the most widely shared responses, replying simply, “What if you just talked to your children?” Other commenters described the proposal as reflecting “a very low bar for what counts as a good use case of this technology,” while still others argued that ordinary, unstructured conversation during the school commute holds inherent value that an AI-generated podcast could not replicate. Not all reactions were negative; some social media users suggested AI-generated podcasts could prove useful specifically on longer car trips, or that the format could help present information to children in a more engaging way without necessarily replacing genuine conversation between parents and kids.

The backlash to Friday’s post revived scrutiny of comments Altman has made previously about the role of AI in parenting. Speaking on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Altman said, “I cannot imagine having gone through figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,” describing how the chatbot had helped calm his anxiety when his child had not yet begun crawling by six months of age, reassuring him that the delay was normal. Altman did add a caveat during that same appearance, acknowledging, “Clearly, people did it for a long time, no problem.”

Altman has continued discussing AI’s role in his own parenting experience in subsequent public appearances. In the debut episode of the new OpenAI Podcast, hosted by Andrew Mayne, Altman was asked how ChatGPT has helped him as a new parent and offered a striking, matter-of-fact assessment of his children’s future relationship with artificial intelligence. “My kids will never be smarter than AI,” Altman said. “But also they will grow up vastly more capable than we were when we grew up. They will be able to do things that we cannot imagine and they’ll be really good at using AI.” Altman went on to say he did not believe his children would be bothered by growing up alongside systems more capable than themselves in certain respects, though he also acknowledged potential downsides later in the same conversation, saying he suspected “this is not all going to be good, there will be problems and people will develop these problematic, or somewhat problematic, parasocial relationships.”

Altman addressed the broader online reaction to his ChatGPT Work post in a follow-up statement on X on Saturday, writing that OpenAI employees themselves report discomfort when ChatGPT asks them for things, even when they would be “perfectly happy doing the same work” if a human coworker made the identical request. “reinforces how much people care about human relationships and helping each other, and want AI to give time back — or enhance time together — rather than become a layer separating people,” Altman wrote, again in lowercase.

Not every parent has reacted negatively to the broader concept of AI-assisted parenting. Hally Peck, a mother of two, told Business Insider that she relies on an AI agent to help manage her family’s work calendars, school schedules, activities, birthdays and childcare logistics. “I have two kids, and my husband also works full-time,” Peck said. “We’re both in very demanding jobs, which means time is our most critical resource.”

Getting parents comfortable with AI-assisted tools appears to be a genuine priority for OpenAI. The company recently posted a job listing seeking a product manager with specific experience building trust-sensitive consumer experiences for parents and families, according to TechCrunch. Rival technology company Meta has separately been testing an AI-powered app designed to tell children bedtime stories.

The scrutiny of Altman’s parenting-related comments comes as OpenAI continues facing significant legal exposure tied to how ChatGPT has interacted with younger and vulnerable users. The company faces multiple lawsuits from parents and families alleging the chatbot played a role in loved ones’ delusions and suicides, including a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April after months of conversations with ChatGPT that his parents allege included the chatbot providing detailed information on self-harm methods and offering to draft a suicide note. OpenAI has said it is “continuously improving how our models respond in sensitive interactions” and has introduced new parental control features allowing adults to link accounts with their children’s, manage feature access, and receive notifications if the system detects a teen may be in acute distress.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available around the clock by calling or texting 988.

Liontown managing director Tony Ottaviano says he’s open to growing his company’s lithium portfolio and would look at Rio Tinto’s Mt Cattlin mine if approached. 

Gina Rinehart-backed Liontown ended last financial year with more than $560 million in the bank, riding the wave of positivity in the lithium market to generate $137 million over three months. 

The company is planning towards an expansion call at its sole Kathleen Valley mine this quarter and hopes to achieve a mining run rate of 2.8 million tonnes per annum by the end of next year.

But with the market for the battery metal resurgent compared with 12 months ago, Mr Ottaviano said the company was looking at different avenues to growth. 

“We’re good at exploration, and that’s why we’ve instigated, now that we’ve got a little bit of money, our growth options from exploration,” he said.

“The second area is shovel-ready operations – these are things that are permitted, ready to go, should we build? But that’s a three-to-five-year journey.

“And then there’s … operating assets, but they take a lot more risk. They take a lot more due diligence and a lot more understanding.

“I think a portfolio that has a mixture of all that is what you should be preparing for, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Mr Ottaviano said Liontown would “probably stay within brief” when it came to its commodity focus, with lithium the most likely target. 

Questioned specifically about the mine, he said Rio Tinto’s mothballed Mt Cattlin asset near Ravensthorpe could come under consideration if an approach was made. 

“If they approach us, we’ll look at it,” Mr Ottaviano said. 

“But it’ll depend on the quality of the resource, and where it sits on the cost curve.”

Mt Cattlin was closed in July 2025, having come onto the books of Rio via its acquisition of $10.7 billion Arcadium Lithium acquisition months earlier.

Rio boss Simon Trott flagged the potential for the global mining giant to sell the asset last week, when he declared it was not a focus for the company’s lithium division. 

Liontown’s changing fortunes have been propelled by exposure to spodumene markets, which have evolved in recent years and allowed the company to access more dynamic pricing for its spodumene product.

The miner initially sold its product under offtake contracts signed in 2022 to help it secure funding as it developed Kathleen Valley, but Mr Ottaviano said they were being slowly unwound. 

“Two thirds of our book by the end of the calendar year will be on the spodumene index,” he said.

Liontown raised $316 million in August last year, in a move to secure its balance sheet amid a challenging macroeconomic environment. 

Liontown shares closed 2.5 per cent higher at 99c today. 

Shares of Tata Motors, which now houses the company’s commercial vehicle business, jumped more than 4% to Rs 454 on the BSE on Monday after reporting a 37% year-on-year rise in total commercial vehicle sales to 39,641 units in July.

Domestic sales increased 28% to 33,876 units from 26,432 a year earlier, while international volumes more than doubled, rising 128% to 5,765 units.

Nomura highlighted that Tata Motors’ management lowered its LCV industry outlook to flat in 2026 while MHCV demand remained unchanged at 5% year-on-year (YoY). Bus demand is likely to be slightly lower in the EU and South America.

The company maintained its top position in the European bus market and second overall with more than 25% market share. It expects a gradual recovery in profitability in the second half of the calendar year 2026, impacted by weak LCV demand and macro uncertainties offset by cost efficiency programs, Nomura noted.

Also read | Tata Motors CV can cross 1 million vehicles after Iveco deal: N Chandrasekaran at AGM

The international brokerage believes that while weak LCV industry outlook remains a demand headwind, Iveco’s focus on cost efficiencies, low-cost sourcing advantages post TMCV integration, and new launches will support an earnings recovery over the next two years, which remains a key monitorable.
Nomura has a ‘Neutral’ call for the shares of Tata Motor CV, with a target price of Rs 402 apiece. This implies a downside potential of nearly 8% from the stock’s previous closing price of Rs 436.95 apiece on BSE.

Tata Motors CV share price

Tata Motors CV shares have gained more than 10% in a week and 5% in a month. The stock is overall up around 6% in 2026 so far.
The company currently has a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 1.67 lakh crore.
Also read | Tata Motors CV bets on global expansion, EVs and digital businesses for next phase of growth

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)