Tale of the Tape 

Happy Friday everyone!

The “buy the dip” gang was in full action today as Nifty and Sensex roared back from their opening weakness to end at the day’s high. PS - markets recorded their fourth straight week of gains! Midcaps and Smallcaps ended flat. The advance-decline ratio was in favour of the bears (3:2).

It was a mixed-bag kinda day for sectors. FMCG (+1.3%), IT (+0.6%) and NBFCs (+0.6%) saw solid gains. Metals (-0.7%) and Pharma (-0.3%) witnessed selling pressure.

As we wrap up 2024, read our top story on JM Financial’s top three bottoms-up picks for 2025!

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Metal stocks took a dip after falling prices brought on by China’s alleged plans to weaken the yuan. SAIL, NMDC, Hindalco and Tata Steel fell between -3% and -4% intraday before recovering.

Epack Durable was locked in a 5% upper circuit. DAM Capital sees a further +7% upside from current levels.

HAL rose +2% intraday after signing a Rs 13,500 cr deal with the Ministry of Defence. UBS says it’s their top defence pick.

Ashok Leyland & Tata Motors will increase prices of trucks & buses by up to 3% from Jan 2025.

Mobikwik IPO got oversubscribed an insane 126x on the final day.

Here are the closing prints:

Stock
New Year Picks

What do you buy at a time when macro factors look weak, geopolitical uncertainty is crazy high and we have a sideways market that is nervous AF? Start from the ground up! Individual companies can outperform broader sectors and even the economy.  Here are JM Financial’s top three ‘bottoms-up’ picks for 2025:

1) BHEL: India’s renewable energy industry is the sunrise sector, but thermal still remains king. FYI - the PSU has already bagged orders for 10,400 MW of projects in FY25 vs 1,320 MW in FY23. Another crazy summer like the one we had this year and the GOI will be scrambling to control a power deficit in FY26. Which is why it’s targeting to add 93 GW of thermal power plants by FY32. Yes, BHEL has struggled with execution in the past but it’s turning things around. JM Financial sees a whopping +53% upside from current levels.

2) Maruti Suzuki: Strong SUV launches helped it regain & solidify its market leadership. Its hybrid & CNG bet also paid off well, helping drive price growth! 2025 is set to be even bigger with Maruti launching its first ever electric SUV. PS - the stock is trading at 18x FY27 EPS (well below its 5-year-average of 27.5x). JM Financial is bullish and has a target price of Rs 15,250 p/sh; +35% from current levels!

3) Zee Entertainment: The company has cut losses on its Zee5 streaming service, lowered overall content spends, which allowed margins to increase to 16% in Q2FY25 vs 13.6% last year. New packages for GEC advertisers + the Sony merger litigation issue being put to rest sets up the company for an even better H2FY25 as ad spends pickup. Best of all, promoter Punit Goenka recently lost his boardroom seat. This is good news for any shareholders worried about the family. FYI - the brokerage sees a +50% upside from current levels.

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