The Indian equity markets bounced back in the last hour to end in positive territory after trading lower for the most part of the session on Thursday. The BSE Sensex climbed 223.60 points or 0.37 per cent to settle at 61,133.88 and the NSE Nifty gained 68.50 points or 0.38 per cent to end at 18,191.

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From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank were the major gainers. In contrast, Tata Motors, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv and Larsen & Toubro were the prominent laggards.

"The domestic markets continued to join global markets' weakness in the morning session, but pared all of their losses in the late afternoon session amid volatility on December expiry day," said Mohit Nigam, Fund Manager & Head - PMS, Hem Securities.

Below is the list of three large-cap stocks that were top gainers/losers on the exchanges on Thursday —

Bharti Airtel: Buy – Target: Rs 930; Upside: 13%

Shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel, which was among the top losers on Wednesday, became the top Nifty and Sensex gainer today. The buying sentiment in the counter can be attributed to the company’s plans of Rs 27,000-28,000 crore capital expenditure for the network and no premium pricing for 5G.

The stock gained over 2 per cent to Rs 823 per share on the NSE, as compared to 0.38 per cent rise in the Nifty50 at the close today. JM Financial, a domestic brokerage, maintained a Buy rating on the telecom stock with a target price of Rs 930 per share, implying a 13 per cent upside.

Dayanand Mittal of JM Financial expects a structural uptrend in ARPU (average revenue per user) to come via a mix of tariff hikes and continued MBB (mobile broadband) upgrades and rise in data usage. He believes that going forward India wireless business tariff hikes are likely to be more frequent.

Eicher Motors: Buy – Target: Rs 4,125; Upside: 25%

Shares of Eicher Motors closed among top Nifty50 gainers on Thursday. The stock jumped over 2 per cent to Rs 3,288 per share on the NSE. Axis Securities maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 4,125 apiece, implying a 25 per cent upside.

The demand for the two-wheeler category of Eicher Motors – Royal Enfield — is expected to pick up on account of new launches and higher exports after witnessing severe headwinds over the last 3 years, Aditya Welekar, Research Analyst - Axis Securities, said in a report on the auto major.

Welekar added that VECV, a JV of commercial vehicles (CV) between Volvo and Eicher, may also see a cyclical recovery in volumes and profits as the CV industry recovers. He expects the company to register Revenue/EBITDA/PAT CAGR of around 21/29/35 over FY22-FY25E, respectively. 

Tata Motors: Buy – Target: Rs 525; Upside: 36%

Shares of Tata Motors closed as top Nifty and Sensex loser on Thursday. The stock slipped over 1 per cent to Rs 386.50 per share on the NSE. Julius Baer Equity Research maintained Buy rating on the counter with a target price of Rs 525 per share, implying 36 per cent upside.

Milind Muchhala of Julius Baer Equity Research said, “Amid softness in chip shortage and global uncertainties, Tata Motors is expected to see improved performance over the period on cyclical recovery, new launches, better product mix, cost-cutting initiatives.”