Top Gainers & Losers, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, SBI, Nifty50, Sensex, NSE, BSE,

Top Gainers & Losers: Indian equity benchmarks held on to most of their intraday gains at the end of a choppy session on Tuesday led by buying interest in heavyweights Reliance and the HDFC twins. The Sensex ended 562.8 points or 0.9 per cent higher at 60,655.7 and the Nifty50 settled at 18,053.3, up 158.5 points or 0.9 per cent from its previous close.

Thirty-seven stocks in the Nifty50 basket finished the day higher. Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, HCL Tech, and TCS were the top gainers. On the flipside, SBI, Bajaj Finserv,

IndusInd Bank, Wipro, and Tata Steel were the top laggards.

The bulls are trying hard to cap the damage amid the prevailing consolidation phase and awaiting some trigger for further recovery, Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking said.

“We feel buying in select index majors may result in some respite ahead but not enough to trigger the next directional move. We thus reiterate our view to focus on stock selection and risk management until we see some decisive signal,” the analyst at Religare Broking further said.

Here are some of the blue-chip stocks that saw big moves on January 17:

L&T

L&T shares ended stronger by Rs 75 or 3.5 per cent at Rs 2,213.2 apiece on BSE, emerging the top gainer in both headline indices, a day after the construction major announced reported its financial results for the quarter ended December.

The company's order book of Rs 3.72 lakh crore provides strong execution visibility, according to ICICI Securities Research Analyst Rahul Modi. However, he also pointed out that the firm's infrastructure margin remained constrained in the six months that ended in September 2022.

“Given its business moat in terms of execution capabilities, we assign a target multiple of 22x FY24E P/E to the standalone business," he said.
The brokerage has an 'add' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,262 apiece.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL)

Hindustan Unilever shares gained by Rs 69.3 or 2.7 per cent at Rs 2,666.4 apiece on BSE, as investors awaited the FMCG giant's earnings due this week.

HUL remains Sharekhan's preferred pick in the large consumer goods space.

The brokerage reiterated a 'buy' on HUL with a target price of Rs 3,005 apiece. The stock trades at a valuation multiple of 53 times its estimated earnings for the year ending March 2024, which is at a discount to the five-year average, according to Sharekhan.

SBI

SBI shares were the top laggard on both Sensex and Nifty, finishing lower by Rs 10.1 or 1.7 per cent at Rs 593 apiece on BSE.

“We expect SBI to deliver over 17 per cent RoE aided by growth build-up, contained credit cost and improving margin profile. Absence of treasury knock is likely to support operating profit growth of 27 per cent YoY and 12 per cent sequentially,” said Kunal Shah, Research Analyst at ICICI Securities.

Shah has pegged loan growth for the lender at four per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis and 20 per cent on year for the October-December period given its strong corporate lending pipeline and retail credit momentum.

ICICI Securities has a 'buy' call on the SBI stock with a target price of Rs 612 per share.