HDFC Bank & Minda Corp: What Sunny Agrawal of SBI Securities says on these 2 stocks

Sunny Agrawal, Deputy Vice-President and Head of Fundamental Equity Research at SBI Securities, on Thursday said the correction in crude oil price came as a relief for domestic equity benchmarks. From here on, market will become stock specific as a lot of companies are announcing their provisional updates for the second quarter (Q2) of financial year 2023-24 (FY24), Agrawal told BT TV. The market expert selected HDFC Bank Ltd as one of his top long-term picks.

"After the merger, the private lender has come up with a rock-solid commentary (Q2 FY24), wherein gross deposits and advances have increased by 18 per cent and 17.6 per cent, respectively. Also, HDFC Bank has disbursed highest-ever home loans post-merger, which is to the tune of Rs 48,000 crore. We can see some short coverings in the near term," he said. HDFC was merged with HDFC Bank on July 1 this year. HDFC Bank was last seen trading 0.36 per cent higher at Rs 1,536.30 today.

The other long-term bet which the market expert picked was from the automobile ancillary space, i.e. Minda Corporation Ltd. "We expect Minda Corp's revenue to grow at a pace of 20-25 per cent over the next two-three years, backed by new product development and customer acquisition. In FY23, the company has posted sales of Rs 4,300 crore and it is likely to post sales of Rs 5,500 in FY25. Profit will grow from around Rs 280-290 crore in FY23 to Rs 340 crore," Agrawal said.

He suggested that investors can accumulate Minda Corp for target price of Rs 400 over the next 12-18 months. Minda Corp was down 0.64 per cent to trade at Rs 324.05.

Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap-up opening today amid positive global cues. The domestic bourses were up led by gains in banks, financials, automobile, consumer durables and technology stocks. Broader market (mid- and small-cap) shares were also positive.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 4,424.02 crore of shares on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought Rs 1,769.49 crore of stocks, exchange data showed. FIIs have been net sellers for the last 11 sessions.

All 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Auto, Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty IT were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.61 per cent, 0.55 per cent, 0.65 per cent, 0.66 per cent and 0.73 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock jumped 1.65 per cent to trade at Rs 3,596. Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra and Titan gained up to 1.42 per cent.

In contrast, PowerGrid, Divi's Labs, Britannia, Nestle India and Tata Steel were among the top laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,169 shares were advancing while 662 were declining on BSE.

(Disclaimer: Business Today provides stock market news for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. Readers are encouraged to consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.)

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