Many times, the street tends to make a bucket of stocks and a narrative gets created that that these stocks have similar characteristics and hence they tend to move in a similar direction. While this might be correct for some time, but over a period of time, especially when there are headwinds, some companies either diversify into new areas or for any other reason, while the mother set of characteristics remain the same, they become different from each other. Let s take the case of mega cap or the top five IT companies, while the narrative is that they are all the same, the fact is the stock of HCL tech is much higher than what it has formed in the last quarter of 2021 which was the time when all other mega cap IT stocks touched a new high. Essentially, even the companies which look very similar could be very different, in business and their stock performance could also be very different.
On Monday, when the whole market was reeling under pressure, there was one sector which was able to keep its head above water both at the level of indices and internal market breadth of that sector. It was IT sectors, it is not the first time that this relative outperformance has been witnessed on the street, in recent months, there have been instances where on the day market has been under pressure, IT stocks have moved upward. The only difference is frequency, magnitude and the breadth of the sector which is involved on the day of outperformance by the sector. Frequency has increased, more IT from large cap are able to relatively outperform and magnitude of up move is better as compared to earlier. Stock Reports Plus, powered by Refinitiv, is a comprehensive research report that evaluates five key components of 4,000+ listed stocks - earnings, fundamentals, relative valuation, risk and price momentum to generate standardized scores.
Indian IT companies have seen an upward trend in the last three months, particularly in December, following the Federal Reserve s December 2023 release, which hints at the possibility of three rate cuts in the calendar year 2024, implying a reversal in the rate cycle.
Sandip Sabharwal says largecap IT stocks do not interest him. Some selective midcap IT companies are doing very well, like those which have distinct business or like KPIT Technologies or like BirlaSoft reported very strong results, etc. There, investors can selectively invest on corrections.
Frontline IT companies report mixed Q3 earnings, but analysts anticipate a recovery in the next few quarters as green shoots emerge. TCS sees pent-up demand and growth in banking and financial services, while Infosys has deal ramp-ups on schedule. HCLTech observes green shoots in ER&D and expects strong deal bookings. Wipro notes demand stabilization and slight pick-up in discretionary spending.