Is the clean up over? 8 fertilizer stocks with 4 having “buy” reco and upside potential of up to 47%

One change for making higher provision for unsecured loans and we see all the NBFC stocks tumbling. The short term reaction of the street is a mix of two things. First the technical position in the markets, whether the stock or sector has seen a recent runup or not and secondly emotional one without understanding the working of a sector or a company. Sometimes these short term reactions are opportunities as the macro picture of the sector is far better and stronger as compared to what is being perceived in the short term due to one action or the newsflow.

In 2008, the IPO of a power company got subscribed in less than a minute of its opening and the size of that issue was Rs 11,563 crore. This just shows the desire to own power sector stocks at that point of time. From those days of frenzy to the nadir in 2014, when power companies were on the top of the list of NPA of the banks. Power companies have seen both the extreme of valuations. It is a sector where after many failures and to some extent a consolidation, some companies have emerged which know how to deal with all kinds of economic and industry cycles. That is probably the reason why a number of companies from the power sector have seen a sharp re-rating in the last one year. Hoping the survivors have learnt their lessons.

On Interim Budget day when the fertilizer subsidy bill was seen as lower than expected, the street reacted negatively. The assumption is that if the fertilizer subsidy is going to come down then it is bad for the sector. Now there is another way to look at it, a government that has been ensuring that agriculture gets the right amount of attention and doing the various policy pushes, then why is the overall projected subsidy bill down? Probably, it may be because the government is expecting that policy actions that it has taken over the years will yield results and some of the other non-financial efforts that it will take in the sector will help reduce the bill without having an adverse effect on any stakeholders. Is it too early to take a negative view?

Among many industries which have seen a strong transformation in the last nine years due to policy initiatives has been the sugar industry. This is despite the fact that sugar is a state subject where central policies can only play a limited role. If one looks at the balance sheet of a large number of them, they are far better placed than they were six years ago and to some extent in the last two years even the institutional investors have started to take exposure in this sector which they have avoided for more than three decades.

While it has been slower as compared to other sectors, even the fertilizer sector has been witnessing policy changes which have intended to plug loopholes and increase the operational efficiency of the companies. Given the policy measures, it would be worth bringing them to watchlist because if a re-rating takes place then we could see a sharp move. But one thing which one needs to remember is that in such sectors some time invested capital can underperform for some time.

While the recent performance of stocks like REC, PFC and recently listed IRDEA has brought focus back to one segment of power companies. But the fact is that in the last few years, the sector has been going through a consolidation. Some of it was forced by the banks due to many companies going under the IBC and some due to the fact that any industry which has gone through a troubled phase of almost a decade, the players who are able to survive tend to get more attention because they have learnt the art of surviving a tough phase which is one most important feature for long term survival. Power sector stocks are now catching up with what the market has witnessed in the last few years.

However if one looks at the history of financial markets, there are phases where multiple challenges have come up for the sector at the sametime. But given the savings matrix which Indian’s have, despite all that may have happened, on an overall basis the financial services industry has grown and some select stocks have given decent returns to their shareholders.

Gone are the days, when a single company was considered a bellwether for IT sector stock. Today, whether it is a large or mid sized company, all have different focus areas and hence their quarterly results tend to differ from one another. Stock Reports Plus, powered by Refinitiv, is a comprehensive research report that evaluates five key components of 4,000+ listed stocks - earnings, fundamentals, relative valuation, risk and price momentum to generate standardized scores.

Textile is one of the oldest industrial sectors in India. However, right from labour issues to smaller Asian countries becoming more competitive in terms of cost of production, different segments of the textile industry have faced more headwinds than tailwinds in their history of existence. This list is drawn from Stock Reports Plus, powered by Refinitiv, with over 4,000 listed stocks along with detailed company analysis focusing on five key components - earnings, fundamentals, relative valuation, risk and price momentum.

One sector which has performed extremely well in the last two years has been hospital space. If one looks at the post listing performance of the IPOs which have come from this space, it is clear that both domestic and institutional investors are ready to pay a premium to have these stocks in their portfolio. The reason healthcare companies are bound to see growth, because average spend on healthcare will increase due to expansion of insurance and spending by the government.