Market Update: Over 142 stocks hit 52-week high on BSE; BPCL top gainer, GHCL jumps 5%

Nifty as well as Sensex were trading in the green in the afternoon trade with the Nifty adding 12.55 points while the Sensex gained 0.06 percent or 20.32 points. On the BSE 142 stocks hit 52-week high in today’s trade.

Bank Nifty was marginally up led by Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Federal Bank which added over 1 percent each.Yes Bank was the other top Index gainer, up close to 2 percent and trading at Rs 374.60 per scrip.

In the Nifty, the stocks that gained the most were Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Indiabulls Housing Finance which added over 2 percent each while Yes Bank, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharti Airtel were the other top Nifty gainers

In the BSE Index, the stocks which rose the most were GHCL which jumped 5.15 percent followed by Syndicate Bank, Bombay Burmah and NBCC, each adding over 4 percent each.

The stocks which hit 52-week high in today’s trade on the NSE included Bajaj Auto, BASF India, Bombay Burmah, Jubilant Foodworks, Avanti Feeds and Dilip Buildcon. On the BSE, HCL Technologies, LG Balakrishnan, Shoppers Stop, Tata Chemicals, Yuken India and Indiabulls Housing Finance were some of the few stocks that hit 52-week high.

Global broking firm UBS has a buy on Federal Bank with a target of Rs 140 per share and has a positive outlook given strong forecast loan growth of 22-26 percent with valuations looking reasonable.

However, Morgan Stanley has maintained an ‘Equal-weight’ on the stock with a target at Rs 95 per share. It expects RoE staying below CoE over the next few years and values the stock at 1.8x FY19E.

Technical Analyst Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com has a buy on Bharti Airtel with a stop loss of Rs 448, target of Rs 470 and has a buy also on Jubilant Foodworks with a stop loss of Rs 1,535, target of Rs 1,580.

VK Sharma of HDFC Securities suggests buying Tata Chemicals 700 Call at around Rs 14, stop loss at Rs 9 and a target of around Rs 25 and also has a buy on Vedanta 340 Call at around Rs 4.50, stop loss at Rs 3 and a target of around Rs 8.

The market breadth was in favour of the advances with 31 advances as against 19 declines. However, on the BSE, there were 1329 advances as against 954 declines.