HRITIK led the Nifty rally this year, will it be SALMAN next?

Mumbai: HRITIK acronym for index heavyweight stocks: HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Infosys, and Kotak Bank put up a strong show in 2019. Leading a Nifty rally, three among these advanced 38 to 50 percent in the last one year. Market participants are now guessing who would be the next set of stocks leading the rally.

A section of traders is betting on SALMAN — SBI, Axis Bank, Larsen and Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, Adani Ports and National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) — to lead the next rally. The Brokerages have maintained ‘BUY’ on SBI, betting on a recovery in India’s growth momentum. Nomura had said SBI’s Q2 asset quality beat its estimates. SBI gained over 12 percent in the past year and closed on Friday at Rs 337.25 a share.

The asset quality of the bank improved with gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio coming in at 7.19 percent, down 276 bps yearly and 34 bps sequentially.

Axis Bank has also been traders and brokerages favorite. The index heavyweight along with RIL, ICICI Bank and HDFC were the preferred pick by the brokerage house CLSA. The bank had reported a consolidated Interest Income of Rs 12,183.88 crore, up 3.89 percent from last quarter. Axis Bank has gained over 15 percent in the last year and closed at Rs 739 apiece.

The NTPC has also been on the rise after the foreign financial firm Morgan Stanley upgraded the company’s shares to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ earlier. This came on the back of the government’s decision to approve strategic disinvestment in the power major.

It had, however, fallen 23.53 percent in the last year and closed at Rs 114.55 a share on Friday.

JPMorgan had recently reiterated the ‘overweight’ rating on Maruti Suzuki and also raised its target price. The largest car manufacturer in India has, however, declined 8.58 percent in the last year and closed at Rs 7,255 a share.

Larsen and Toubro had recently downgraded by Credit Suisse to ‘neutral’ from outperform and revised target price down to Rs 1460 from Rs 1750. The brokerage has downgraded the stock as macro continues to remain hostile in terms of the gap in government finances from tax shortfall and continuing credit growth deceleration. (IANS)

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