Adani Enterprises, Adani Total Gas, ITC, SBI, ICICI Bank: 5 stocks that added more m-cap than RIL in 2022

Five BSE500 stocks Adani Enterprises, Adani Total Gas, ITC, SBI and ICICI Bank added up to Rs 2.5 lakh crore in market capitalisation (m-cap) each in 2022, which was higher than Reliance Industries' m-cap addition of Rs 1.18 lakh crore during the same period.

Adani Enterprises saw its shares surging 122.99 per cent to Rs 3,810 as of Thursday over December 31's closing of Rs 1,708.55. The m-cap of the company has risen Rs 2.46 lakh crore to Rs 4,34,340 crore from Rs 1,87,908 crore at 2021-end.

In the case of Adani Total Gas, the m-cap of the company has risen Rs 2.30 lakh crore to Rs 4,19,198 crore from Rs 1,88,579 crore at the end of 2021.  This scrip rallied 122 per cent to Rs 3811.55 (as of Thursday) from Rs 1,714.65 level (as of December 31, 2021).

ITC, whose shares have seen its biggest rise in 17 years, added Rs 1.47 lakh crore in market capitalisation in 2022. Shares of the Kolkata-based FMCG major climbed 54 per cent to Rs 335.25 crore from Rs 218 crore at the end of 2021. 

State-run lender SBI saw its shares advancing 33 per cent to Rs 612.30 as of Thursday over December 31's closing of Rs 460.45. The m-cap of the company has risen Rs 1.35 lakh crore to 5,46,454 crore from Rs 4,10,933 crore at 2021-end.

ICICI Bank, on the other hand, added Rs 1.18 lakh crore in m-cap to Rs 6,32,580 crore from Rs 5,13,982 crore. This stock has risen 22.48 per cent in 2022 to Rs 906.70 from Rs 740.25 apiece.

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Among the five stocks, SBI, ICICI Bank and ITC are among top 2023 picks, as suggested by a few brokerages. Motilal Oswal said a stable tax environment for cigarettes in recent years has allowed ITC to calibrate price increases and that the domestic brokerage expects the trend to continue, which should drive earnings visibility over the medium term.

"We are positive on ITC fuelled by a better-than-expected demand recovery and a healthy margin outlook in Cigarettes, healthy sales momentum in the FMCG business, smart recovery from the hotels business, and better capital allocation in recent years," Motilal Oswal said.

Sunil Nyati, Managing Director at Swastika Investmart said he is bullish on the banking sector, particularly the leader, SBI. "But I am not comfortable with a sharp run in some of the smaller PSU banks. Many of them are trading P/BVs that are higher than SBI's. I would suggest booking profits in a bank like UCO Bank," Nyati said.

Santosh Meena, Swastika Investmart said SBI still enjoys a comfortable valuation despite a big run-up in 2022. He has SBI as his top bet on rebound in capex.

Vikram Kasat of Prabhudas Lilladher likes ICICI Bank because of its sustained client focus, digital capabilities coupled with a micro-market-based approach, which has resulted in strong retail growth of 25 per cent and SMB growth of 36 per cent YoY in September.

"Retail average SA balances have grown 50 per cent over March 2019 to September 2022. Tech spends would remain elevated which contribute 9 per cent to opex (6 per cent in FY20)," he said