Trent Hits Upper Circuit as 23% Revenue Growth and 1,000th Zudio Store Revive a Lagging Stock

Trent was the single biggest story on Dalal Street on Tuesday morning. Shares of the Tata Group retailer opened about 8.5% higher at Rs 2,800 on the NSE against Monday's close of roughly Rs 2,580, hit the 10% upper circuit within minutes, and touched an intraday high near Rs 2,909, a gain of more than 12%. At those levels the company's market value was back above Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

The stock's surge did a good share of the lifting for the wider market. By around 11 am the Sensex was up roughly 350 points, or 0.5%, at about 72,730, while the Nifty 50 was trading near 22,660, with Trent and Reliance Industries among the leading contributors.

What the update showed

In a provisional filing to the exchanges, Trent said standalone revenue from operations, excluding GST, rose 23% year on year to Rs 5,788 crore for the July-September quarter, up from Rs 4,724 crore a year earlier. Revenue from merchandise sales alone grew at the same 23% pace.

That is a clear acceleration. Growth in the April-June quarter was 18.5%, and Morgan Stanley noted that the company had been reporting growth in a 16-20% band for the previous five quarters. For the first half of FY27, revenue came in at Rs 11,454 crore, about 21% higher than a year ago.

The quarter also brought a symbolic milestone: Trent opened its 1,000th Zudio store. The value-fashion chain added 17 stores on a net basis in the quarter, while Westside added 10. Across all its formats, Trent operated 1,342 stores as of September 30.

Why the market cared so much

The reaction was sharper than the numbers alone might suggest because the stock had been under pressure. Before Tuesday it was down roughly 9% over one month and 12% over three months, trailing the Sensex, and it had slumped to a 52-week low of Rs 2,185 in late March. Brokerages had worried that growth was slowing as Zudio's expansion matured and competition in value fashion intensified. A quarter of faster growth directly challenged that narrative, and investors who were underweight the stock rushed to cover.

Brokerages split on what comes next

The bullish camp moved quickly. HSBC reiterated its Buy rating with a target of Rs 3,390, about 32% above Monday's close. Morgan Stanley set a target of Rs 3,406 and said it expected the stock to outperform the broader market over the next 30 days. Macquarie has an Outperform rating with a Rs 3,600 target.

Citi was the notable dissenter, keeping its Sell rating and a Rs 2,950 target. Its concern is productivity: revenue per square foot fell 8.4% from a year earlier. That was better than the 12% drop Citi had pencilled in, but it still suggests new stores are generating less business per unit of space than older ones. Citi also said store additions in the quarter were lower than it had expected.

What to watch

The update is provisional; full results with profit and margin figures will follow after the board meeting. Investors will be looking at whether the faster top-line growth came with stable margins, and whether the drop in revenue per square foot narrows as newer stores mature. Trent's Q1 net profit had risen 26% to Rs 532 crore with an EBITDA margin of 19.6%, which sets a high bar for the second quarter.

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