​Led by the downside in private bank stocks, Nifty slipped 0.33% lower and broadly consolidated in the 21,600–22,000 range during the week. PSU banks outshined with SBI leading with a 12% upside in just five days.

The main trigger for this divergent trend in equity and debt is the high valuation in the Indian equity market and the rising bond yields in the US, said VK Vijayakumar of Geojit Financial.

Alkem Labs, Titan and Angel One were the top three stocks high net-worth individuals or HNI investors fell in love with in the quarter gone by. An analysis of the December quarter shareholding pattern shows that the richie rich also lapped up shares of Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Reliance Industries. In INR value terms, HNI holding was at Rs 7.36 lakh crore on December 31, 2023. This was an increase of 14.12% over the last quarter. Here's a look at the top 10 stocks they bought: (Source: PRIME Database)

Super-investor Arnold Van Den Berg says value investing is the best approach to amass wealth in the long term, as it is not very popular with the masses and provides opportunities for investors to buy stocks at good bargains.

In the last three years, many sectors and companies which have been in the dumps for years have made a comeback. There are two kinds of comebacks, one is comeback on the dalal street. Second is a comeback in the real business. It is the second one which is more important as that is what finally matters to even the street. If one looks at the history of the liquor industry it has been dominated by two large names, but over the last few years, many smaller companies have made a comeback in a real business sense. Some due to their one brand getting super successful, others have been able to restructure their operation, reduce debt by selling some of the non core assets. Some by becoming bottlers and outsourcing their capacity to large players. In a nutshell, after two decades of ups and downs, these smaller players have reached the point where there is a possibility that they might see a re-rating, if they stay in course of clean and transparent corporate governance.

The PSU Bank Index has risen by more than 56% in the last 1 year, the Nifty Private Bank Index rose by just 14%, and in the same period Bank Nifty by 13%, making PSU Banks the leader of the segment.

Value Funds are designed to spot undervalued stocks poised for future success, aligning with the principles of the "value factor." It is a viable alternative for investors seeking value factors in their portfolios.

In a market in which stocks of companies undergoing bankruptcy are quoting at half billion market cap, finding stocks which have value is probably not something which is an easy thing. It is time when the choice has to be made between fairly priced or overpriced. Given the sentiments, investors are more prone to buying stock first and then looking at what is the business of the company, that too is done by very few. It is exactly the time and sentiment when it becomes extremely important to go back to the basic principle of investing. Put more checks and balances before you buy the stock and the reason for buying that stock at that point of time. So as you stay bullish, be selective.

Shares of Canara Bank, which gained 23% in the last two weeks, will remain in focus this month as the board of directors of the state-owned lender will meet on February 26 to consider a stock split.

According to the shareholding pattern available with the exchanges, Gensol Engineering is majority-owned by promoters at 62.59%, while public shareholders own the remaining 37.41%.

Amazon disclosed on February 2 that Bezos plans to sell as many as 50 million shares of Amazon over the next 12 months, potentially cashing in on a stock surge that’s put him within reach of becoming the world’s richest person.

As elevated valuations cap the upside in the broader market, smallcap rally was subdued but steady with 52 stocks gaining in double digits during the week. Mid and smallcaps had witnessed strong rallies over the past few months thus making valuations a little stretched.

On Thursday, BAT said it has been "actively working for some time" to sell a part of its stake in ITC. BAT holds a slightly over 29% stake in the Indian conglomerate spanning tobacco-to-hotels. Earlier indications from BAT suggest its intention to maintain up to a 25% shareholding in ITC to retain strategic influence, including veto rights. A 4% stake sale would be valued around ₹21,000 crore at the current market price.

As the S&P 500 has soared to fresh highs, fewer stocks have been participating in the rally, stirring worries that recent gains could reverse if the market's leaders stumble.

In the past three months, the Nifty PSE index surged close to 48%, while the Small-cap 250 and Mid-cap 100 indices rose about 21%. Analysts said the rally in public sector stocks has led to a surge in participation by individual traders, who have mounted bullish bets on them with borrowed money.

This was after the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman was in talks with investors to raise funds for a tech initiative intended to boost chip-building capacity for power AI, among other things.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 5.64 points, or 0.01%, at the open to 38,731.97. The S&P 500 opened higher by 6.26 points, or 0.13%, at 5,004.17, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 48.66 points, or 0.31%, to 15,842.38 at the opening bell.

The move comes after the Reserve Bank of India’s dictat, barring Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers and offering incremental banking services from March, due to concerns regarding breach of and compliance with regulatory norms.

Nifty on Friday ended 65 points higher and found support at 20-DMA to form a small body-positive candle with a minor lower shadow on the daily chart to signal buying at lower levels.

Long unwinding refers to selling of positions or stocks owned for a longer period either to book profit or to exit it in anticipation of impending bearishness. In Friday's trading session, five stocks witnessed a top-long unwinding. Here's the list:

Shares of Megatherm Induction listed with a massive premium of 108% earlier this week. Post the debut, the stock jumped further and is currently trading at Rs 252 apiece, up nearly 133% over the issue price.

The Nifty Bank managed to surpass critical resistance placed around 45,500 levels which is a positive sign for the bulls. The index now faces the immediate hurdle around 46,000, suggest experts.

Fairfax currently has a short interest of 0.65% of free float worth C$203.81 million ($151.36 million), with short sellers having made over C$21 million in paper profits so far today, according to data from Ortex. The Canadian company's insurance business has struggled to remain profitable even after the hurricane-related catastrophes in 2017, Muddy Waters wrote in a research note.

Short covering refers to the buying of shares in order to close an existing short position or a position that has been sold. Short covering signals a shift in view on a security from extreme bearishness to bullishness. In Friday's trading session, five stocks saw top short covering. Here's the list:

Here's a look at the top sells of the various superstar investors in the December quarter. (Data Source: Trendlyne)

Bluechip Sensex stocks, SBI, Sun Pharma, and ICICI Bank were the top gainers, rising 2-3.5%. Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Titan, and Asian Paints also closed with gains, while M&M, Airtel, NTPC, Tata Steel, and JSW Steel closed with cuts.

Both IOC and HPCL have given multibagger returns of 128% and 116%, respectively over the past 12 months while returns by BPCL have been to the tune of 80% during this period.

Chris Wood, in his Greed & Fear weekly newsletter, said he was pleasantly surprised at the Budget which was almost devoid of vote-buying populism despite coming just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections later in the year. In Wood's global long-only portfolio, the investment in HDFC Bank will be reduced by two percentage points, while the investments in Axis Bank and TSMC will be increased by one percentage point each.

Indian shares struggled for direction on Friday as investors digested the fading likelihood of early rate cuts in India and the United States, and as oil and gas stocks pulled back after a recent rally. Meanwhile, in today's trade, six largecap stocks from the Nifty200 index hit a new 52-week high. Here's a list:

The whole logistics sector has seen a major shake-up in the last few years, right from tech aggregators who came into the scene with a promise to disrupt, challenges that Covid brought on the table to a phase where oil prices become a pain point for margins. After all the challenges, the sector has emerged stronger as some companies restructured their operations to stay profitable. There are many facts about the logistics industry which might surprise many. Just to mention a few, a metal major has such a large fleet of owned trucks that the unit itself can be listed as a separate company and probably would figure in the top 5 logistic companies. Last year at one point of time, the market cap of one single company was higher than the market cap of all the private sector companies put together and interestingly that company was in the red.

In the September quarter of FY24, Tata Power had reported a 7% year-on-year (YoY) increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 876 crore. It was Rs 819 crore in the same period last year.

RVNL's revenue for the reporting quarter was also lower by 6% at Rs 4,676 crore, down from Rs 5,011 crore reported by RVNL in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year. On a QoQ basis, the revenue was down by 5% over Rs 4,910 crore reported in the July-September quarter.

IREDA stock has been on a course correction since hitting its all-time high of Rs 214.80 on the NSE on Tuesday, February 6. Today's price action was accompanied by strong volume action with more than 27.39 lakh shares changing hands around 11:20 am.

"Over the last 3 years, ITC returned 3x from bottom to peak, led by strong cigarette volume growth, scale-up in FMCG, improved capital allocation, & increase in FII holding. These factors have largely played out, and cigarette volume growth is moderating," Jefferies said.

A long buildup is when there is a rise in open interest and volumes along with an increase in the price of the underlying stock in the Futures and Options segment. The long buildup is the occurrence of a long (buying) trend in the share market. In Friday's trading session, five stocks witnessed a build of fresh long positions. Here's the list:

Just because of the stock, HDFC bank came under pressure, a narrative got built, that the whole banking and financial services sector is facing headwinds. But the fact is financial service is a very broad term, it would be wrong to look at them with the same lens. Each segment is an industry in itself which is governed by an operating matrix which is very different from another. For example, a Housing finance company can be happy with 10 percent net margins, but for an average asset management company ( AMC) the net margin would be more than 30 percent. Similarly, a gold loan company is best of the NPA provisioning ability but the margins are not very high. The only common thing which binds the financial service sector is the GDP growth rate as the growth in all segments have a certain well defined relationship with growth in GDP.

A short buildup is when there is a rise in open interest and volumes along with a decrease in the price of the underlying stock in the Futures and Options segment. Short buildup means more people are expecting the prices to go down and creating short positions. In Thursday’s trading session, five stocks witnessed a build of fresh short positions. Here's the list:

The Indian government is promoting the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City, as a "gateway for global capital and financial services for the economy" and is trying to attract companies through tax-breaks and other incentives.

Sequentially, the topline rose just 1.1%, while the bottomline dropped by nearly 15%. The mainstay edible oils business reported a 15.3% drop in revenue to Rs 5,483 crore, while the FMCG business reported a sharp 64% growth in revenue to Rs 2,499 crore.

Data shows that while trading volumes in Hong Kong have been falling, India has seen a sharp surge in the last 2-3 months. With 'Buy India, Sell China' being the strategy of many EM investors, India's Sensex has jumped about 17% in the last year, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down about 27%.

Nifty opened in the positive territory and reached the day’s high but soon lost altitude and closed with a loss.

A top financial analyst said that the KSE-100 index has plummeted because investors were looking to sell instead of buying due to the uncertain situation created after the elections. Another senior analyst said the investors wanted a stable government to be formed and the end to the political uncertainty.

A significant part of this selling within the financial services sector was in private banks, particularly HDFC Bank, which is highly concentrated by FPIs.

Zomato's third-quarter earnings beat the estimates on the back of robust growth in food delivery and hyperpure businesses. Net profit jumped nearly 4x (283%) quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 138 crore. An ET Now poll saw the figure around Rs 36 crore. The company had posted a loss of Rs 347 crore in the last year period.

YES Bank shares scaled a fresh 52-week peak of Rs 32.85 and the price action was supported by strong volume action with over 54.12 crore shares being traded on the NSE around 10 am.

We are not wired to see risks, which makes us undermine various risks we are exposed to. So, people often think that if I don’t raise a claim at some point in time, then what is the use of insurance?

This isn't a hypothetical example to understand the link between stock price reaction and concentrated ownership but a reality in the world of PSU stocks on Dalal Street.

Macquarie maintained an underperform rating on Zomato with a target price of Rs 76. The company has seen steady margin improvements and strong Quick Commerce growth, it said.

One of the preferred picks for Sharekhan by BNP Paribas in this space is Mahindra Lifespace Developers as it believes that the company has a strong potential to scale up in the realty upcycle.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers has a strong launch pipeline of Rs 4000 crore, of which it aims to launch more than half of its in FY24. Given its inherent scalability in both residential and industrial leasing, it provides more room for an upside in the stock, says Ronald Siyoni of Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.