Vinit Bolinjkar, Head of Research at Ventura Securities, said investors should cherry pick PSU bank or state-owned lender stocks as long-term fundamental bets at current levels. In the PSU bank pack, Bolinjkar on Thursday told BT TV that State Bank of India (SBI) would be among the top in his list, given that the stock "looked extremely undervalued". He suggested to 'Buy the dip'. In the private lending space, Bolinjkar opted for HDFC Bank and mentioned that investors may consider adding these two select banking stocks to their portfolio.
Apart from the banking bets, he said Minda Corporation looked attractive. "The company has made a very seamless transition. And, this stock offers 40 per cent upside and can be considered as a strong investment opportunity," Bolinjkar stated.
He also cited that investors should also watch for NTPC, BHEL, Bank of Maharashtra and Dredging Corporation of India.
Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks started lower today amid weak global cues. Asian markets edged lower, following a slide in Wall Street equities overnight, after Fitch cut the US top-tier credit rating to AA+ from AAA-, citing fiscal deterioration.
Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 1,878 crore worth of shares on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded Rs 2.23 crore of equities, as per provisional NSE data.
Nine out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Oil & Gas, Nifty Metal, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Realty were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.35 per cent, 0.41 per cent, 0.26 per cent and 0.59 per cent, respectively.
On the stock-specific front, UltraTech Cement was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 1.30 per cent to trade at Rs 8,180. Hindalco, UPL, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel fell up to 1.05 per cent.
In contrast, Sun Pharma, Adani Enterprises, NTPC, Bajaj Auto and Dr Reddy's were among the top gainers.