Stocks to 'Buy'; upto 151% gains- Target price: HDFC Bank, L&T, Infy, RIL, Eternal & more

Amid the market correction driven by geopolitical tensions, brokerage firms see several stocks emerging with better risk-reward dynamics where fundamentals remain intact. Elara Capital has picked as many as 20 stocks from the large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap baskets, suggesting upside potential of up to 150 per cent.

Indian stock markets have seen a sharp correction on the back of rising war conflict between the US and Iran. The benchmark indices — BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 — have plunged up to 11.5 per cent in March 2026 alone, while they are down as much as 17 per cent from their respective 52-week highs, staring at bear-market pressure.

Not just the benchmark indices, the pain in the broader markets has been worse. The BSE Midcap 150 index is down 15 per cent from its 52-week high, while the BSE Smallcap 250 index has cracked nearly 22 per cent from its peak. In fact, the fear gauge India VIX has more than doubled since the onset of the war to the 27.89 mark.

Commenting on its stock picks, Elara believes that valuations are either trading below their five-year median levels and, in some cases, even below the lows seen during the Russia–Ukraine crisis. It selected stocks using a mix of valuation, correction, growth visibility and analyst conviction — not correction alone.

"The key filters were stocks trading at a discount to their 5/10-year median valuations or below Russia-Ukraine crisis lows, those that corrected by 5 per cent or more during the drawdown phase, or had already seen a sustained correction earlier, companies with healthy FY26–28E sales and PAT CAGR — usually in double digits — and at least 14 per cent upside for large caps and 25 per cent for mid and small caps," it said.

The Nifty drawdowns from the onset of conflicts have usually been capped at 10 per cent across major geopolitical events in the past 25 years, Elara noted. "Unlike the corrected bucket, lower P/E versus historical data was not a selection criterion here; instead, the focus was on combining price resilience with the same growth visibility and analyst conviction filters," it said.

From the large-cap space, Elara has picked HDFC Bank (Target Price: Rs 1,147), L&T (Target Price: Rs 4,487), Maruti Suzuki (Target Price: Rs 18,686), Axis Bank (Target Price: Rs 1,555), Titan (Target Price: Rs 5,000), Eternal (Target Price: Rs 415), Eicher Motors (Target Price: Rs 9,300), LTIMindTree (Target Price: Rs 6,740), Apollo Hospitals (Target Price: Rs 8,670) and Polycab India (Target Price: Rs 8,180).

From the mid-cap basket, it has picked United Spirits (Target Price: Rs 1,650), GMR Airports (Target Price: Rs 140), UNO Minda (Target Price: Rs 1,503), IDFC First Bank (Target Price: Rs 90) and Godrej Properties (Target Price: Rs 3,700). Gland Pharma (Target Price: Rs 2,225), Gabriel India (Target Price: Rs 1,381), BEML (Target Price: Rs 2,700), Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (Target Price: Rs 72) and Safari Industries (Target Price: Rs 3,248) are its top picks from the small-cap basket, offering up to 151 per cent upside.

Market participants believe that if the war between the US and Iran continues for a few more weeks, there could be a serious risk of earnings downgrades across several sectors. They caution that the improved risk-reward balance should not be interpreted as anything more than a correction-driven opportunity.

Kotak Institutional Equities also sees value emerging in more parts of the market after the sharp correction in prices across market caps, sectors and stocks due to the ongoing Iran-US conflict. The correction in the broader market and in several stocks since the start of the Iran-Israel/US war implies that the market is factoring in a prolonged crisis and a large cut to earnings in perpetuity, Kotak said.

Kotak Institutional's large-cap model portfolio includes names such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, ABB India, L&T, Godrej Consumer Products, Oberoi Realty, Bajaj Finserv, Shriram Finance, Apollo Hospitals, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life, Eternal, Swiggy, Info Edge, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Cipla, Mankind Pharma, Sun Pharma, DLF, Lodha, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports and IndiGo.

Kotak has picked Aadhar Housing (Fair Value: Rs 625), Coforge (Fair Value: Rs 1,620), Dixon Technologies (Fair Value: Rs 16,800), Dr Lal Pathlabs (Fair Value: Rs 1,750), Embassy Office Parks REIT (Fair Value: Rs 480), Eureka Forbes (Fair Value: Rs 700), Federal Bank (Fair Value: Rs 310), Home First Finance (Fair Value: Rs 1,525), Jubilant FoodWorks (Fair Value: Rs 620) and Vishal Mega Mart (Fair Value: Rs 145) in its mid-cap model portfolio.