The question that kept everyone guessing since the last few days was answered on Thursday. The Sensex finally kissed the 12K mark for the first time since May 18. The 10,000 mark was touched on June 16; so the Sensex took 63 trading days to climb up to 12,000, 15 more days compared to its last journey from 10,000 to 12,000.
Sectors like the BSE IT, Bankex, FMCG, Healthcare and Oil indices, which gained sharply today, were obviously the ones that drove the Sensex to 12K.
So can investing into these sectors at this point be profitable to the investor? If yes, then which stocks should be picked? Experts give their preferences.
Gaurang Shah of Geojit Financial Services suggests sticking to the frontliners. "In banking, you can look at investing in ICICI Bank, while in the FMCG space you can put your money in Hindustan Lever and Marico," he says.
But in the cement space, he suggests not only the frontliners, but also some midcaps. "Gujarat Ambuja, Kesoram Industries and India Cements look good in the cement space," he says.
Sumeet Rohra from Antique Stock Broking too believes that the banking and auto sectors performed very well on Thursday.
Giving his picks there, he says, "In the banking space, I like HDFC Bank. I think it has some potential
Technical analyst, Rahul Mohindar also likes Reliance. "We maintained Rs 1170 as the short-term target for Reliance. So one could utilise any kind of corrective action in Reliance to actually buy in," he suggests.
Giving his pick in the banking space, he says, "I think at these levels ICICI Bank is still positive and we could have another 5-10% upside from these levels. So one should stay invested or could even buy in at these levels."
Ambareesh Baliga of Karvy Stock Broking finds HLL and ITC attractive in the FMCG sector. "SBI and Bank of Baroda look good in the banking space," he says.
Anand Tandon of Gryffon Investment Advisors believes if one has to look at sectors where there is perhaps still some possibility of earnings upside, then it would have to be construction, cement and perhaps to some extent, some of the oil services companies, inspite of the oil prices falling off.
He adds, "IT of course continues to remain a very robust earnings story, though much of the valuation seems to be priced in for the moment."
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