Cracker Stocks This Diwali: Edelweiss' Trideep Bhattacharya Likens Defence To Sparklers, FMCG To Sutli Bomb

Edelweiss Financial Services' chief investment officer of equities, Trideep Bhattacharya, spoke to NDTV Profit about 'cracker stocks', likening their effects on investors and the market to various types of firecrackers burst during Diwali.

Bhattacharya joined Dinshaw Irani, chief executive officer of Helios Capital Management (India) Pvt. as well as Harsha Upadhyaya, CIO of equity, president at Kotak Mahindra AMC, for the 'Samvat 2082' programme where they discussed the stock market during Diwali with NDTV Profit.

The Edelweiss CIO named the 'sparkler' stocks to be players in government capex, such as defence and railways, saying that one of these sectors could spring-up positive surprises as the government takes a more active role.

Bhattacharya's pick for 'sutli bomb' stocks, defined as those stocks with low voltage explosion, were those from the fast-moving consumer goods sector.

"It could certainly do a little better, but given that we are well penetrated as an economy, the range of outcomes could be limited," Bhattacharya said.

His picks for the 'rocket' stocks were consumer discretionary stocks which, he said, investors could choose their pick by basket which would be "rocket in 12-18 months".

Upadhyaya, on the other hand, said that he didn't think there could be many rockets in the coming months.

"From a sectoral perspective, you may not see too many outperformers in one single sector," he said.

Irani named large cap stocks and stocks in new kinds of ventures as his pick for 'rocket stocks.'

"Largecap may have some diversified plays because they're underpenetrated. New companies like platform and film tech companies would be his rocket picks," he said.

On the global scale, Bhattacharya said that India would be one of the global outperformers than the rest of the world.

"In terms of the next year, 12 to 18 months will be the year of consumption. With public sector pay revision and whatnot coming up. Earnings on the discretionary side look undercooked," he said

The Edelweiss CIO said that low double digits is the way he thinks it would go for the upcoming calendar year.