Amit Gupta, Senior Vice-President & Fund Manager at ICICI Securities PMS, on Wednesday said railway stocks moved up very fast in the recent past and they definitely demand some consolidation at current levels. From the public sector undertaking (PSU) space, the market veteran liked the critical mineral segment over the railway sector.
"The government has worked on the critical minerals segment in the Budget 2024. And, shares of companies such as Hindustan Copper Ltd and NMDC Ltd are available at relatively better valuations," Gupta told Business Today TV.
"If one has to remain in the state-owned space, they need to change into more attractively valued segments because the government didn't change its stance from the PSU perspective," the market expert stated.
As a fund manager or investor, you have to change the guards when valuations are very rich and try to move into other segments where the value is more attractive, Gupta added.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech, announced a complete customs duty exemption on 25 critical minerals. She also revealed plans to reduce the basic customs duty (BCD) on two additional minerals.
Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks were trading lower today, dragged by banks, financials and FMCG stocks. However, broader markets (mid- and small-cap shares) were up.
Eight out of the 16 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty FMCG were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 1.38 per cent, 1.15 per cent and 0.78 per cent. In contrast, Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty Oil & Gas rose 1.20 per cent and 1.48 per cent, respectively.
On the stock-specific front, Bajaj Finserv was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 2.89 per cent to trade at Rs 1,572.1. Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consumer Products and Hindustan Unilever fell up to 2.59 per cent.
In contrast, HDFC Life, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, BPCL and ONGC were the top gainers on Nifty50.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,670 shares were advancing while 1,162 were declining on BSE.