ITC shares rise 3% amid market crash; time to buy?

Shares of FMCG firm ITC gained nearly 3% today amid a weak market sentiment today. ITC shares reached the intraday high of Rs 348.80, rising 2.69 per cent on BSE. ITC stock has been rising for the last five sessions. The rally in the large cap stock comes a day after the conglomerate announced an initiative to promote millets in food as part of its steps to ensure food and nutritional security in the wake of challenges from climate change. Shares of ITC have gained 60.33 per cent in a year and risen 3.77% this year.

Total 9.45 lakh shares of the FMCG firm changed hands amounting to a turnover of Rs 32.64 crore on BSE. Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 4.29 lakh crore. It was trading 4.9% away from the 52-week high of Rs 361.9 on BSE.

ITC stock has gained 68.50 per cent from the 52-week low of Rs 207, touched on February 24, 2022.  The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 361.90 on November 11, 2022.

In terms of technicals, the relative strength index (RSI) of ITC stock stands at 56.9, signaling it's neither oversold nor undersold. ITC stock has a one-year beta of 0.6, indicating low volatility during the period. ITC shares are trading higher than the 5-day, 20-day, 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages.

Under the initiative, the company will put together strengths of its agriculture, food and hospitality business verticals to promote millets with plans to introduce products with the cereal in most of its categories.

Due to climate change, long period of extreme weather events raise a big issue of food and nutritional security despite all the steps taken up for decarbonisation and its mitigation, ITC Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Puri said.

Commenting on the outlook of ITC stock, Abhijeet from Tips2trade said, "Amid an Indian market rout today caused due to panic selling caused by the Heidenburg research report on the Adani group stocks raising serious corporate governance concerns amongst Indian companies, ITC remains one of the few top stocks to end in the green due to the company entering the millet segment in a big way. Technically, Rs 347 remains a strong resistance on the Daily charts. Investors should buy only if daily close is above  Rs 347 for targets of  Rs 359-375 in the near term. Strong support will be at  Rs 341."

Religare Broking has given a target of Rs 360 for the ITC stock with a stop loss of Rs 325. “Chart pattern signalling resumption of uptrend, after forming base around medium-term moving average,” the brokerage said.

BNP Paribas India expects ITC stock to hit the target of Rs 400.

"Our target price is based on SOTP. Downside risks are: Steep increase in taxation on cigarettes and higher than expected increase in raw material costs," the brokerage said.

Meanwhile, Sensex was trading 1,081 points lower at 59,123 and Nifty lost 288 points to 17,604 in the afternoon session today.

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