These 30 stocks dropped up to 17% in just 5 sessions. Do you own any?

New Delhi: The latest round of sell-off in the Indian equity market has pushed the benchmark indices about 5 per cent lower in just five sessions, thanks to a sharp fall in select index heavyweights and IT counters. In the five trading sessions between April 11-19, BSE Sensex has tumbled about 5 per cent, whereas its NSE’s counterpart Nifty50 has marginally outperformed the BSE’s barometer, with a 4.6 per cent drop.

However, second-rung stocks have outperformed their headline peers as BSE midcap and smallcap indices tumbled about 3 per cent each. BSE500 index, which constitutes about 95 per cent of BSE market cap, is down by 4 per cent.

Unabated foreign fund outflows, rising inflationary concerns, spike in crude oil price, disappointing India Inc earnings and geopolitical worries due to war between Russia and Ukraine, have made investors nervous, said market experts.

“In the near term, there is no change of view about avoiding the financials but once the corporate cycle kicks back, once we see the bank balance sheet starts expanding with pricing power, that is when we will change our view and by that time, we will get a lot of these companies at fairly attractive valuations,” says Kenneth Andrade, CIO, Old Bridge Capital Management.

As a word of caution, in an interview with ET Now, Trideep Bhattacharya, CIO, Edelweiss ,AMC said investors should beware of volatility in the equity market and should invest in tranches for the next 3-4 months.

“We are positive on domestic cyclicals in the form of industrials, lending financials, direct and indirect plays of real estate from a portfolio construction, whereas stay neutral to negative in pharma, IT services, consumer staples and utilities,” he added.

According to data from Ace Equity, as many as 30 stocks on BSE 500 have registered a double-digit drop since April 11. Majority of the names are from tier-II and tier-III categories with a fall of up to 17 per cent.

Interestingly, 78 per cent of stocks or 390 of them on the BSE500 index have delivered negative returns to investors during the period under review.

The list of laggards is topped by Bajaj Holdings & Investment, which has dropped 17 per cent. The NBFC scrip settled at Rs 5,179.6 on April 19 from Rs 5,179.6 on April 8.

Midcap IT companies including Zensar Technologies, L&T Technology Services and Mindtree are other companies that tanked 16 per cent each.

After a decent set of numbers in the March 2022 quarter, brokerage firm Axis Securities is positive on MindTree with a buy rating and a target price of Rs 4,830. However, ICICIDirect has maintained a ‘Hold’ rating on the stock.

IT major Infosys has also tumbled about 14 per cent during the same period after reporting disappointing numbers in the quarter ended March 2022. The results failed analysts on multiple parameters.

Majority of the brokerages including Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, CLSA and Nomura have cut target prices on Infosys by 4-7 per cent after the fourth quarter numbers came in below expectations.

Alok Industries and Brightcom Group also tumbled 14 per cent each, followed by a 13 per cent drop in Intellect Design Arena, Birlasoft, Housing Development Finance Corporation and Indiabulls Real Estate each.

Yes Bank, Happiest Minds, Mastek, Tata Teleservices and Vodafone Idea tanked a dozen per cent each, whereas Tata Elxsi, HDFC Bank, Persistent Systems, KPIT Technologies, Tata Power dropped 11 per cent each in the last five sessions.

Majority of the domestic brokerages including Motilal Oswal, Edelweiss, Kotak Securities and Nirmal Bang are positive on HDFC Bank, India’s largest private lender and have recommended to buy it.

Brokerage firm ShareKhan gave a buy rating to Mastek with a target price of Rs 3,840 earlier this month, whereas ICICI Securities has downgraded Tata Power to ‘hold’ recently.

Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Strides Pharma Science, Sanofi India, Suzlon Energy, Macrotech Developers, IOL Chemicals And Pharmaceuticals, Tech Mahindra, Linde India, Delta Corp were the other counters to register double-digit cuts.

Vijay Singhania, Chairman, TradeSmart, said stocks with higher capitalization amongst midcaps in IT sector, along with smaller banks can be chosen for investment, whereas real estate sector can be avoided due to possible rate hikes.

On the contrary, about 9 stocks – Minda Corp, NHPC, Just Dial, Deepak Fertilisers, MRPL, Bharat Dynamics, Capri Global, Godfrey Phillips and Adani Green – on the BSE500 index have rallied between 10-25 per cent during the same period.