Vehicle financing stocks: Rally doesn't price in flattening business growth

Some of the critical customer (bus services) segments, such as tourism, education institutions and offices, and state transport may take time to recover

A rally of 45-57 per cent in the stocks of Shriram Transport and Cholamandalam Investments and Finance Company (Chola Finance), and over 35 per cent in the case of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services (M&M Finance) over the past month puts them almost back to the pre-Covid levels or prices seen in February.

Chola Finance made a new 52-week intraday high of Rs 394.30 on Friday, which is much higher than the Rs 340 level seen in February. The same is true for Sundaram Finance, which hit a 52-week high (Rs 1,831.75) last Tuesday and is up 23 per cent