An evening walk down D-St: ITC, Voltas among 5 stocks that could do well in May series

After holding gains in the first half of the session on April 23, the market took a dive pulling Sensex down nearly 100 points while Nifty held on to its crucial support at 11500-11550.

The final tally on D-Street – the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 80 points to close at 38,564 while the Nifty ended at 11,575, down 18 points.

The broader market outperformed as BSE Mid-cap index rose 0.15 percent while the BSE Smallcap index slipped 0.07 percent.

In terms of sectors, banking stocks led the fall. The Nifty Bank plunged 177 points led by losses in Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI, and RBL Bank.

Other sectors that were on the losing side include auto, infrastructure, metal, and financial services. On the other hand, Nifty Pharma rose nearly 1 percent followed by the Nifty Energy index which was up 0.52 percent.

Experts feel that the index is likely to stay in a range of 11,500-11,700 ahead of the expiry but there is plenty of stock specific action that investors can track.

“Nifty retraced gains after hitting a record high last week. Ahead of the election outcome, India VIX moved up to a 4-year high which in other words mean that it would make options expensive which in turn would increase the cost of hedging. Nifty is likely to stay in a range of 11,500-11,700,” Ashish Chaturmohta, Head of Technical and Derivatives at Sanctum Wealth Management told Moneycontrol.

“For May series, selective stocks are looking promising that include ITC and Hindustan Unilever from the FMCG space. In the consumption space, we like Voltas and Titan Company, and in agro theme, we like UPL,” he said.

Stocks in news:

Tejas Networks fell 2 percent despite company reported strong numbers for the quarter ended March 2019.

Essel Propack ended flat on after private equity player Blackstone announced acquisition of a majority stake in the company.

Lupin gained 4 percent after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the stock to overweight from equal-weight earlier and also increased price target by 40 percent, citing reasonable valuations.

Aviation majors InterGlobe, the operator of IndiGo and SpiceJet fell for the third consecutive session on April 23 after a consistent rise in crude oil prices.

Global update:

European markets are trading mixed ahead of new earnings season.

Asian markets ended mixed on April 23 due to a rise in crude oil prices. Kospi rose 0.17 percent at 2,220.51, while Nikkei was up 0.19 percent at 22,259.74.