Mayuresh Joshi, Head-Equity Research at William O'Neil India, on Friday said Budget 2024 will be the next focus point for market. "Our take is that the Budget announcement should not have any negative surprises. If there are no negative surprises, market will focus back on earnings," the market expert told Business Today TV.
On the stock-specific front, Joshi selected Pennar Industries Ltd as one of his top picks for the day. "The company has a strong order book (both domestic and international). FY24 was a brilliant year as far as revenues and bottomline were concerned. The management also sounds optimistic in terms of future earnings growth as well. So, this is one stock, if on any pullback, can be looked at by investors," he stated.
Pennar Ind shares were last seen trading 2.27 per cent lower at Rs 176.40. Bourses BSE and NSE have put the securities of Pennar under the short-term ASM (Additional Surveillance Measure) framework. Exchanges put stocks in short-term or long-term ASM frameworks to caution investors about high volatility in share prices.
The other stock which the market expert suggested was Morepen Laboratories Ltd. "Core API and medical device businesses are expected to grow at a decent pace. The company is also looking to expand further with more products being added in the next few quarters. This should augur well from the earnings perspective," Joshi mentioned. Morepen Labs was up 0.28 per cent at Rs 54.30.
Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks were trading on a positive note today, led by gains in information technology (IT), pharma and healthcare stocks. The broader NSE Nifty index touched an all-time high of 23,667. Broader markets (small- and mid-cap shares) were also up.
Eight out of the 16 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty IT, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.66 per cent, 0.87 per cent and 0.95 per cent, respectively. However, Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were down 0.55 per cent and 0.51 per cent, each.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,008 shares were advancing while 1,537 were declining on BSE.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought Indian shares worth Rs 415.30 crore on a net basis during the previous session while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 325.81 crore.