Auto Stocks to Watch October 15, 2026: M&M Slides 2.5%, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Fix Q2 Dates

The auto stocks to watch October 15 head into Thursday after a soft finish. The Nifty Auto index closed at 25,156.75 on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, down 235.10 points or 0.93% from Tuesday’s close, and it ended near its intraday low. Mahindra & Mahindra did the most damage after Kotak Institutional Equities trimmed its target price; Hero MotoCorp and Bosch were among the few gainers. Q2 FY27 results dates are now fixed for Sona BLW, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and M&M, so this watchlist covers the closing levels, the September volume data and the triggers that matter from here.

All index and stock prices below are end-of-day levels for October 14, 2026, taken from Upstox’s Nifty Auto page. Percentages are one-day changes against each stock’s previous close unless we say otherwise, and sales growth figures compare September 2026 with September 2025. For the wider market, keep our Stock Market Today India hub open, and read our October 14 closing report for how the Sensex and Nifty ended the day.

Auto stocks to watch October 15: how Nifty Auto ended Wednesday

The sector index opened at 25,424.20, hit a high of 25,431.00, then slid to a low of 25,113.30 before settling at 25,156.75. That wiped out most of Tuesday’s 1.23% gain. Upstox’s returns table has the index down 7.87% over one month and 5.57% over one year, and Wednesday’s close is about 15.8% below the 52-week high of 29,865.50 (52-week low: 23,560.10).

The broader market was weaker as well, but autos did worse. The Nifty 50 fell 0.44% to 22,622.70 and the Sensex lost 0.34% to 72,781.89. India VIX, the gauge of expected volatility, rose 3.61% to 14.63.

Where the main Nifty Auto constituents closed on Wednesday:

• Mahindra & Mahindra ₹2,793.70 (−₹70.70 / −2.47%); previous close ₹2,864.40
• Ashok Leyland ₹145.00 (−₹2.37 / −1.61%); previous close ₹147.37
• Eicher Motors ₹7,082.50 (−₹80.50 / −1.12%); previous close ₹7,163.00
• TVS Motor ₹3,969.70 (−₹41.80 / −1.04%); previous close ₹4,011.50
• Bajaj Auto ₹10,250.00 (−₹68.00 / −0.66%); previous close ₹10,318.00
• Maruti Suzuki ₹11,178.00 (−₹67.00 / −0.60%); previous close ₹11,245.00
• Bharat Forge ₹1,838.80 (−₹3.40 / −0.18%); previous close ₹1,842.20
• Samvardhana Motherson ₹159.80 (−₹0.20 / −0.12%); previous close ₹160.00
• Bosch ₹45,000.00 (+₹100.00 / +0.22%); previous close ₹44,900.00
• Hero MotoCorp ₹5,019.50 (+₹22.00 / +0.44%); previous close ₹4,997.50

This wasn’t a sector-wide collapse. Two-wheelers were split, with Hero up and TVS and Eicher down, and the single biggest move came from M&M. Ashok Leyland, the commercial vehicle maker, was the second-weakest name on the list.

Mahindra & Mahindra: a target cut, a buy rating and the tractor question

M&M fell 2.47% to ₹2,793.70, a move Global Banking & Finance Review also recorded against the same previous close of ₹2,864.40. CNBC-TV18 reported that Kotak Institutional Equities cut its target price to ₹4,000 from ₹4,175 but kept its Buy rating. Even the lower target implies roughly 40% upside from Tuesday’s close of ₹2,864.40.

Kotak went through the worries that have dogged the stock for a year: a downcycle in tractors, lost share in SUVs, new competitors and commodity inflation. Its view is that these are largely cyclical or reversible. The brokerage put the tractor slowdown down to a weak monsoon and a high base rather than anything structural, and it expects launches on the NU_IQ platform from the first half of calendar 2027 to help M&M win back SUV share. It also said the stock trades at about 15.5 times estimated FY2028 core earnings per share.

On paper, the Street is still with the stock. Per the same CNBC-TV18 report, 38 of the 41 analysts tracking M&M rate it Buy and three rate it Hold, with no Sell calls. The average 12-month target of ₹4,109.74 implies about 44% upside from Tuesday’s close. The report added that the stock had fallen about 25% so far in 2026 and about 18% over the trailing 12 months, and that M&M itself expects the tractor industry to grow around 5% in FY27.

When a stock falls on a target cut that still implies about 40% upside, the market is telling you it doubts the timing of the recovery more than the destination.

The volume data shows why the argument is really about tractors, not vehicles. M&M’s own September 2026 auto sales release put total auto sales at 1,14,874 vehicles including exports, up 15%. Domestic utility vehicle sales rose 14% to 64,092 units from 56,233, domestic commercial vehicle sales rose 14% to 30,420, and three-wheelers rose 26% to 16,343. Exports slipped to 4,019 units from 4,320. The company also said cumulative billing of its Electric Origin SUVs has crossed one lakh units since launch.

Tractors were a different story. Arete Securities’ September auto sales note shows M&M’s domestic tractor dispatches at 50,208 units, down 22.7% from a year earlier, with total tractor volumes down 21.2% at 52,100. Arete blamed the festive season moving into October and a September 2025 base pumped up by the GST rate cut.

September dispatches, company by company

Arete calls September a month of pre-festive restocking. Industry volumes rose 14% year on year, and the note points out that Navratri began on October 11 this year against September 22 last year, so dealers were stocking up ahead of a later festive season. Keep that in mind when you read these numbers. Dispatches to dealers aren’t retail sales to customers, and October registration data will show how much of this stock actually moves.

• Maruti Suzuki: total sales of 2,36,013 units, up 24.4% from 1,89,665. Domestic passenger vehicle sales were 1,81,838 units against 1,32,820, and exports rose to 44,219 from 42,204, according to carandbike and the Arete note.
• Bajaj Auto: total sales of 5,38,443 units, up 5% from 5,10,504, per The Economic Times (PTI). Domestic sales fell 9% to 2,94,456 and domestic two-wheeler sales fell 12% to 2,39,771, while two-wheeler exports jumped 34% to 2,11,723.
• TVS Motor: total dispatches of 6,72,790 units, up 24.3% from 5,41,064, with exports up 48% to 1,80,700 and electric vehicle dispatches at a monthly high of about 65,800 units, per Arete.
• Hero MotoCorp: total volumes of 7,66,348 units, up 11.5% from 6,87,220 and up 34.8% from August. Domestic dispatches rose 14.1% to 7,39,018, while exports fell 31.1% to 27,330, per Arete.
• Eicher Motors: Royal Enfield motorcycle dispatches rose 7.7% to 1,33,958 units, which Arete described as its highest-ever September, while the VECV truck and bus business rose 49.6% to 11,396 units.

The real story is the split inside two-wheelers. Bajaj Auto is leaning on exports while its home market shrinks. Hero is doing the reverse, with strong domestic dispatches and falling exports. TVS is growing in both. Wednesday’s price action didn’t clearly reward any of these, which tells us the market wants festive retail data and quarterly margins before it picks a side.

When the auto majors report Q2 FY27

Exchange filings have now fixed the results dates for several sector bellwethers:

• Sona BLW Precision Forgings: Q2 FY27 results on October 26, 2026, followed by an earnings call at 4:30 PM IST, per its exchange filing as summarised by StockFin.
• Bajaj Auto: board meeting on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, with results to be submitted immediately after, according to the company’s intimation to BSE and NSE. Its trading window for designated persons is closed from October 1 to October 29.
• Maruti Suzuki: board meeting on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, to approve results for the quarter ended September 30, per NDTV Profit, citing the exchange filing.
• Mahindra & Mahindra: board meeting on Thursday, November 5, 2026, for Q2 and half-year results, according to the company’s September 24 filing. Its trading window is closed from October 1 to November 7.

So for almost two weeks, monthly volumes, festive retail updates and brokerage previews will move these stocks, not reported earnings. If you follow results closely, our guide on how to analyse quarterly results of a company explains what to check beyond the headline profit number.

What the brokers are pencilling in for Q2

An ETAuto report on Axis Securities’ Q2 FY27 preview says the brokerage expects the automakers it covers to post roughly 28% year-on-year revenue growth but only about 12% growth in profit after tax. Axis named TVS Motor, Bajaj Auto and Ashok Leyland as its top OEM earnings plays, with M&M as a non-coverage pick. The main pressure on margins, it said, comes from elevated raw material and commodity costs and supply chain disruptions.

Here are the company-level estimates from that preview. All growth figures are year on year for the September quarter, and remember these are brokerage projections, not reported results:

• TVS Motor: standalone revenue of ₹16,222 crore (up 36.3%), profit after tax of ₹1,316 crore (up 45.3%) and an EBITDA margin of 13%.
• Bajaj Auto: revenue of ₹18,762 crore (up 25.7% from ₹14,922 crore), profit after tax of ₹3,076 crore (up 24%) and an EBITDA margin of 20.5%, flat on the year but 40 basis points below Q1 FY27’s 20.8% because of costlier aluminium and other metals.
• Maruti Suzuki: standalone revenue of ₹54,626 crore (up 29.8%) but profit after tax of about ₹3,001 crore, down 8.9%, with the EBITDA margin seen at 8.6% against 10.5% a year earlier.
• Hero MotoCorp: revenue of ₹14,337 crore (up 18.2%), profit after tax of ₹1,518 crore (up 9%) and an EBITDA margin of 13.5%, 150 basis points lower on cost inflation.
• Eicher Motors: revenue of ₹7,257 crore (up 22.9%), profit after tax of ₹1,463 crore (up 21.1%) and an EBITDA margin of 24.2%, 68 basis points lower.

This results season looks set to be about margins, not volumes: strong dispatches are already known, so the surprise will come from how much of the metal and energy cost increase each company has passed on.

Maruti is the odd one out. Axis expects its revenue to grow faster than most of the peers above while profit falls, so the stock’s reaction on October 27 may hinge more on the margin line and what management says about costs than on volumes.

Auto ancillary watchlist: Bharat Forge, Bosch, Motherson and Sona BLW

Component makers were mixed on Wednesday. Bosch rose 0.22%, while Bharat Forge and Samvardhana Motherson slipped 0.18% and 0.12%. Moves that small look like waiting, not a view.

Bharat Forge goes into its results with a clear test. In an August interview with CNBC-TV18, chairman Baba Kalyani said he expected the standalone EBITDA margin to recover to the 27-28% range in Q2 FY27 itself, after it dropped to 24.9% in the June quarter from 27.1% a year earlier. He tied the June-quarter pressure mostly to a rise of almost 160 basis points in energy costs, which he expects to recover from customers, and guided for 20-25% standalone growth in FY27. Whether that margin recovery actually shows up is the number to watch when the company reports.

Sona BLW reports on October 26, a day ahead of Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki. What it says about electric vehicle demand and export orders could set the tone for ancillaries going into the automaker results.

What could move the pack on Thursday

• Crude oil: Univest’s post-close note said crude rose 1.32% on MCX on Wednesday. Higher oil feeds into fuel costs for buyers and input costs for manufacturers, so a further rise would be a headwind for the sector.
• Index levels: the same note treats Wednesday’s low of 25,113.30 as the first support for Nifty Auto, with Tuesday’s close of 25,391.85 and Wednesday’s high of 25,431.00 as the nearest resistance. These are reference levels from one day’s range, not targets.
• Festive retail updates: with Navratri having started on October 11, any early retail or booking commentary from carmakers and dealers will test whether September’s heavy dispatches convert into sales.
• Volatility: India VIX at 14.63 after a 3.61% rise points to slightly wider expected swings, which can make single-stock moves sharper around news.

Margins, not volumes, are the real test

Autos enter the second half of October with strong September dispatches already priced in and the hard numbers still two to three weeks away. Wednesday showed that good volume data isn’t enough to lift the stocks on its own. M&M fell on the day Kotak cut its target, despite 15% growth in September auto sales. Bajaj Auto slipped despite 34% growth in two-wheeler exports. The market’s attention has moved to margins and to whether dealer stocking turns into retail demand.

If you’re building a watchlist, the useful split is this. For some companies the Q2 question is mostly about costs: Maruti, Bajaj Auto, Hero and Bharat Forge, going by the brokerage estimates and management guidance above. For others it’s about demand mix, meaning M&M’s tractors and Bajaj’s domestic two-wheelers. Watch October registration data and the October 26 to November 5 results window before reading too much into one day’s move, and size any trade so a gap on results day doesn’t do outsized damage.