Up to 76% upside! HAL, BHEL, Mazagon Dock, Coforge, BDL, Titagarh, HPCL among Antique's top picks

ICICI Bank Ltd, State Bank of India, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), BHEL, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd and HPCL are some of Antique's top largecap picks, as the domestic brokerage cut its March 2027 Nifty target to 27,000 from 28,000 earlier, factoring in the likely earnings downgrade in coming quarters. The domestic said Indian equities are now trading below their historical average levels in terms of price to earnings (P/E), price to book (P/B) multiple and bond equity earnings yield metrics, adding that IT services, private bank, insurance, telecom and metals & mining are among  sectors that are trading at attractive valuations relative to the Nifty 200.

"We remain overweight on financials, industrial, defence, real estate and pharma. Conversely, we are underweight on consumer staples, IT services, consumer durables and consumer services," Antique Stock Broking said.

Among largecap stocks, Antique sees maximum upside on defence stocks HAL (target: Rs 5,706) and Mazagon Dock (Rs 3,275) at 35 per cent each. ICICI Bank (target: Rs 1,622), Shriram Finance (Rs 1,185) and SBI (Rs 1,225) are seen delivering 25-29 per cent returns.

HPCL (target: Rs 679), in the midcap pocket, is seen delivering a solid 76 per cent return. Others included Bharat DynamicsLtd (BDL), Coforge Ltd, Oil India and Radico Khaitan.

Brigade Enterprise, Chalet Hotels, Arvind Fashion, PTC Industries and Titagarh Rail Systems from the smallcap space are also seen delivering up to 51 per cent return. Here's the full table showing Antique's top picks from large, midcap and smallcap pockets, along with their target prices:-

Antique said both mutual funds and foreign portfolio investors are overweight on consumption-linked sectors. The brokerage said this positioning is near the highest level seen since January 2021, with mutual funds favouring auto and consumer services, and foreign portfolio investors leaning towards telecom.

The brokerage said mutual funds are significantly underweight on oil and gas, metals and FMCG. It said they are neutral on investment-linked sectors such as capital goods and cement, although this is at the lowest level since January 2021. It added that mutual funds remain significantly overweight on healthcare, consumer services and auto.

On the other hand, Antique Stock Broking said foreign portfolio investors are significantly underweight on financial services, metals and mining, IT services, FMCG, capital goods and cement. It said FPIs are significantly overweight on telecom, power utilities, services and real estate.

Overall, the brokerage said both domestic mutual funds and foreign portfolio investors remain tilted towards consumption-linked sectors, while their underweight and overweight positions differ across areas such as oil and gas, metals, FMCG, financial services, healthcare, telecom, power utilities and real estate.