Nifty seen rising 12% in next 12 months; D-Mart, Apar Industries among 11 stocks to buy: PL

Benchmark Nifty has offered about 5% returns in the last two months on multiple domestic macro triggers and consistent foreign flows.

"India continues to be in a sweet spot given strong GDP forecast for FY24, pause in repo rates, declining inflation, revival in industrial capex and strong Infra push by the government," Prabhudas Lilladher (PL) said.

The brokerage valued Nifty at 12% discount to historical 10-year average PE (20.8x) with March 2025 EPS of 1,148 and arrived at a twelve month target of 21,013.

In a bull case scenario, it sees Nifty at around 23,878, while in the bear case, the benchmark could be seen at 17,909 in the next twelve months.

In this context, PL is overweight on auto, banks, IT services, capital Goods and healthcare, while remaining underweight on metals, cement, consumer, oil and gas and diversified financials.

"We are structurally positive on India's growth story given globally leading growth, favorable Govt policies and strong demographic dividend," it said.

Erasing most of the losses incurred in the first three months of the year, Nifty has offered 2.7% returns so far this year on a year-to-date basis.

While rural demand is showing signs of a gradual pickup post strong rabi crop and declining inflation is a positive, El Nino and 2024 elections remain the biggest risks to the brokerage's target.

Among individual stocks, Apar Industries, Marico, Navneet Education saw rating upgrades, while Dr Reddy's, Glenmark, Voltas, City Union Bank, Aavas Financiers, Chambal Fertilizers and Laxmi organics were downgraded.

In the largecap space, Prabhudas Lilladher has included D-Mart, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Maruti, RIL as its top picks. Ashok Leyland, Sumitomo Chemicals, Apar Industries, Aster DM Healthcare, Chalet Hotels, Nazara Tech among other stocks made the cut in the mid- and small-cap space.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)