L&T shares extend fall as JM Financial trims firm's order inflow forecast on $8.7-bn Kuwait tender uncertainty

Larsen & Toubro share price

• Kuwait may cancel oil project tenders worth $8.7 bn, says report
• JM Financial cut L&T's order inflow estimates by 5-6% for FY26-28
• L&T shares fell 7% in five days but JM Financial maintains 'Buy' rating

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JM Financial issued a cautious note for Larsen & Toubro (L&T), stating that the uncertainty around Kuwait reportedly cancelling a few tenders can cloud order inflow visibility for the engineering major.

The shares of the company extended decline for the fifth consecutive session on January 14.

Kuwait mulls cancellation of oil project tenders worth $8.7 bn, says report:

Kuwait is discussing plans to cancel oil project tenders worth $8.7 billion, media company MEED reported citing people familiar with the matter. It added that Kuwait's discussions come after bids for several contracts came in well above the budget, raising concerns over cost efficiency and fiscal impact.

According to analysts quoted by CNBC-TV18, L&T was the lowest bidder in tenders worth more than $4.5 billion.

Moneycontrol couldn't independently verify the report.

L&T clarifies:

The company clarified that the said that the projects referred to in the media reports were not part of the company’s order book. "Further, the Company can’t comment on the status of tenders or commercial decisions of its Clients," it added.

JM Financial on L&T:

In its note, JM Financial said it has noted earlier that L&T is well-placed in $5-billion worth of tenders in Kuwait. Thus, any potential delay or cancellation of these bids may adversely impact its order inflows, the domestic brokerage said.

It still expects L&T to meet its FY26 order inflow growth guidance of 10 percent YoY due to the firm’s April-December order inflows of Rs 3.2 trillion and strong prospects for Q4 FY26. However, it cut its core order inflow estimates by 5-6 percent for FY26-28 to account for possible delay/cancellation in the Kuwait tenders.

“This leads to ~3% cut in our core FY28E EBITDA; thus, a 3% fall in the stock price on 13th Jan’26 largely factors in such a deferral,” the brokerage said. Notably, the stock fell as much as 4.5 percent on November 13, before recovering some losses.

JM Financial maintained its ‘Buy’ rating for the stock with a target price of Rs 4,500 per share, implying an upside potential of nearly 16 percent from the stock’s previous closing price.

L&T share price:

L&T shares fell 0.6 percent to trade at Rs 3,863.90 apiece, as seen at 1.20 pm. The stock has fallen around 7 percent in the past five days, and nearly 6 percent in the past one month. It however increased 11 percent in the past six months, and 12 percent in the past one year.

The stock currently has a P/E ratio of 27.93, and a market capitalization of nearly Rs 5.32 lakh crore.

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