HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank & Bajaj Finance among Deven Choksey's top stock picks

Deven R Choksey, MD, DRChoksey Finserv Private Limited, said banking and finance sectors would remain relatively more profitable place going forward. The market expert on Monday told BT TV that if the economy has to move to $5 trillion mark in the next 3 to 5 years, banking and finance companies with a larger balance sheet would remain extremely effective preposition.

In the banking space, Choksey picked HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank as long-term fundamental bets. In the non-banking financial company or NBFC lot, he said Bajaj Finance continues to remain absolutely a convincing pick, given the kind of strength the company has shown.

Within the mid-cap space, Choksey suggested that Poonawalla Fincorp is a strong preposition. The company has doubled the size of its AUM (Asset under management) along with a sustaining growth, he said.

These select stocks could give you relatively smarter returns in the way forward, he mentioned.

Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks traded higher today, led by gains in automobile, financials and pharma stocks. On the global front, Asian equities were subdued. Back home, investors would be keenly watching Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) policy decision, scheduled to be announced on Thursday. The Reserve Bank kept repo rate unchanged in April and June, after hiking them by 250 basis points (bps) in the fiscal 2023.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers of Indian shares for six sessions in a row. FIIs sold Rs 556.32 crore worth of shares on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought Rs 366.61 crore of equities, as per provisional NSE data.

10 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Auto, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Pharma were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.50 per cent, 0.39 per cent and 1.09 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock jumped 3.29 per cent to trade at Rs 1,512.85. Divi's Labs, Sun Pharma, Grasim Industries and NTPC gained up to 2.87 per cent.

Paytm shares surged 12 per cent after the company's founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, entered into an agreement with Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV to purchase 10.30 per cent stake in the new-age company through his 100 per cent owned overseas entity – Resilient Asset Management BV.

In contrast, Britannia, Nestle India, Titan, Bajaj Finance and BPCL were among the top laggards.

On the 30-share BSE index, ICICI Bank, M&M, HDFC Bank, L&T, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries were among the top gainers.

Also, Morepen Labs, Zen Technologies and DB Realty surged up to 13.69 per cent. On the flip side, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, TD Power Systems, Meghmani Finechem and Gujarat Ambuja Exports slipped up to 7.66 per cent.

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