Web Special: Midcap stocks to buy ahead of poll results

After touching record highs for three consecutive trading sessions, markets seem to taken a breather today as investors turned cautious and booked profits at higher levels.

The broader markets have extended their gains and have outperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE Mid-cap index has advanced 0.69% to 7,672 and the small-cap index is up 0.89% at 7,832.

The overall breadth of the BSE mid-cap index is firm as 146 stocks are advancing while 80 are declining.

Among the key mid-cap gainers, the shares of public sector undertakings (PSU) banks are trading higher by up to 3% in an otherwise subdued market after a committee appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made some radical suggestions regarding the government’s control over nationalised banks.

Indian Bank has jumped by 12% at Rs 139. Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank and Andhra Bank have gained between 4-8%.

Shares of infrastructure and real estate companies are in demand with many of them trading at their 52-week high on back of heavy volumes amid expectations that a new government at the centre would give the much-needed thrust to economy recovery.

Adani Enterprises, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Srei Infrastructure, Indiabulls Real Estate, BEML, IVRCL, Hindustan Construction Company, Prestige Estates, HDIL and Unitech have rallied more than 5% each on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Aban Offshore has rallied 5% to Rs 536 after the company said it has called a meeting of its board of directors on May 28 to consider raising funds via securities issue to qualified institutional buyers.

Umang Dairies has spurted over 16% to Rs 39.20 after net profit surged 78.50% to Rs 3.57 crore on 59.58% rise in net sales to Rs 87.13 crore in Q4 March 2014 over Q4 March 2013.

Sadbhav Engineering, Electrosteel Castings and BGR Energy Systems are among the other stocks to see a surge in volumes on BSE today. All the stocks have gained over 5%.

Trading Strategy and Stocks to Buy

AK Prabhakar, Independent Market Analyst recommends PSU Midcap Banks like Canara Bank, Union and Dena Bank. He is also bullish on REC and PFC. He recommends investors to hold PSU stocks like BEML, BEL, Engineers India and Dredging Corp. Investors can also look at Midcap IT & Pharma stocks which has been correcting off late, Prabhakar added.

Devangshu Datta, technical analyst and market expert says, “May 16th election results will determine trends to a large extent. If you buy anything outside the derivative segment, you may be at the mercy of extreme mood swings if the actual results are not in line with the exit polls. In that case, you might have to suffer through several lower circuits without being able to exit”.

"If you want to gamble with some degree of safety, Syndicate Bank, Crompton and GMR Infra might be good bets for appreciation. In each case, be prepared to reverse the position quickly and set stop losses at about 2 per cent below entry price,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ranak Merchant Technical Analyst at Sushil Finance says,” traders who owe Midcap shares can hold, book part, reduce leverage, and use options to trade. Part profits need to be booked in everything. We are not recommending fresh buys now”.