Use any dip in defense stocks as a buying opportunity: Hemang Jani

“The broader valuation comfort is there in banking and financial services particularly I think PSU banks is where there is a higher degree of valuation comfort and the quarterly preview suggests that the growth is going to be much higher than even the private banks,” says Hemang Jani, Equity Strategist & Senior Group VP, MOFSL

Where in the market do you see value because a lot of global brokerages are now saying that India valuations have halved from their peak. They do find merit in terms of valuation comfort and they do believe that India is now a buy on dips market. Wanted to understand what is the house call in terms of stocks that one can buy right now?
The broader valuation comfort is there in banking and financial services particularly I think PSU banks is where there is a higher degree of valuation comfort and the quarterly preview suggests that the growth is going to be much higher than even the private banks so that is number one. Number two, private banks again should do pretty well quarter on quarter as valuation comfort is pretty much there. I think IT is something where there are mixed views but our sense is that at these valuations given that these companies are going to deliver relatively good growth particularly the large cap names Infosys, HCL Tech, TCS, we definitely have a positive view there. Apart from that some of the beaten down names maybe Reliance Industries where the stock has actually underperformed big time; I think both in terms of their retail, the telecom business and the O2C where the refining margin part we can see some good stability. So I think these are some of the names where we have a higher conviction and valuation comfort both.

What is the outlook when it comes to Bharat Dynamics because the company recorded a turnover that is at about Rs 2400 odd crore, quite a significant decline? A number of factors being attributed and it is expected to be recovered though in the current financial year a cause of worry or you believe that this will be recovered and it should not be too much of a concern?
We think that for defence names there is a lot of buzz and people are a little excited about the whole story and the way the government has gone about giving orders to some of these names. It definitely has a feel good. What one must bear in mind is that on a quarter on quarter basis you will not have that sort of linear kind of a growth that typically the market really would want to have. So because of the nature of the business and the way the government goes about giving orders even in case of Bharat Electronics last quarter we had seen that there was a bit of a slowdown. So one has to really look at a slightly bigger picture and from that perspective we think that HAL, Bharat Electronics, Bharat Dynamics one can have some allocation with a two to three year kind of perspective and if you see any dip in between because of some negative surprise I think we should use that as a buying opportunity.

What exactly your outlook is when it comes to the defensives where within pharmaceuticals or FMCG would you be finding comfort? You did talk about your outlook on the consumption space but within pharma where would you cherry pick?
I think having seen a big underperformance in terms of valuations that sector should do better this year. What we feel is that because each company has its own dynamics in terms of growth, valuation comfort etc. we would be more comfortable with names like Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s because that is where we have seen some stability and major negative surprises in terms of USFDA alerts etc. So definitely these are the two names which are high conviction ideas within the pharma space for us.