Go defensive as few catalysts for Indian stocks, says Jefferies

After last year’s lacklustre gains in India’s key equity indexes, the outlook is expected to be more of the same — clouded by political uncertainty and economic concerns, says Jefferies. 

To make money, look at large firms, banks and defensive stocks such as software exporters and utilities, they say.

“Our top-down bias is defensive,” Jefferies India analysts Somshankar Sinha, Piyush Nahar and Pratik Chaudhuri wrote in a note on January 19. “With valuations expensive, the macro soft and political outcomes uncertain, we see few triggers for India’s equity markets this year.”

Even though key Indian equity indexes only eked out single-digit percentage gains