Synopsis
Technical analysts expect the Nifty to fall further in the week before the FY23 Union Budget on February 1. Analysts said the Nifty could fall to 17,300 if it breaks the support of 17,500. Last week, the indices fell 3.5% — logging their worst weekly performance in eight weeks — amid concerns over inflation and the US Federal Reserve’s policy tightening. Analysts are bullish on sugar, fertilisers, defence and real estate stocks in the near term ..

Technical analysts expect the Nifty to fall further in the week before the FY23 Union Budget on February 1. Analysts said the Nifty could fall to 17,300 if it breaks the support of 17,500. Last week, the indices fell 3.5% — logging their worst weekly performance in eight weeks — amid concerns over inflation and the US Federal Reserve’s policy tightening. Analysts are bullish on sugar, fertilisers, defence and real estate stocks in the near term.

RAJESH PALVIYA
HEAD-TECHNICALS AND DERIVATIVES, AXIS SECURITIES

Where is Nifty headed in the week ahead of the Budget?
If the Nifty breaks below 17,500, it would witness selling, which would take the index towards 17,300- 17,100. However, if it crosses and sustains above 17,800 levels, it would witness buying, which would lead the index towards 18,000- 18,300 levels. The index is trading above the 50-day short-term moving average, which is an important factor. The daily and weekly relative strength indicator (RSI) is in a bearish mode, which supports bearish sentiments ahead. For the week, we expect Nifty to trade in the range of 17,300-17,900 with a mixed bias. We expect the index to remain volatile ahead of the Budget, so one should focus on a sector/ stock-specific approach. We expect sugar, fertilisers, defence and real estate to do well in the near term.

What should investors do?
We are suggesting a bearish strategy for the monthly expiry scheduled on January 27. The strategy is a Put Ladder, which involves buying one lot of Nifty 17,650 Put option at Rs 160 and selling of one lot each of 17,450 Put at Rs 84 and one lot of 17,250 Put at Rs 43. Traders should note that the Put Ladder is a limited profit and unlimited risk strategy.The maximum profit of Rs 8,350 will be attained at 17,450 levels, while losses will follow below 17,000. The cost involves an outflow of Rs 1,650, which is the maximum loss if Nifty closes and remains above 17,620 levels on expiry. Any sharper movement on the lower side could result in losses and as an extra put has been sold, it’s advisable to exit the strategy to avoid unlimited losses below 17,000. The break-even points are 17,617 on the upside and 17,017 on the lower side.

CHANDAN TAPARIA
DERIVATIVE ANALYST, MOTILAL OSWAL

Where is Nifty headed in the week ahead of the Budget?
The Nifty has been making lower high-lower lows from the last three trading sessions. Recently, it broke its rising support trend line and the immediate trend has taken a setup back for a sharp correction led by weakness in global markets and foreign institutional investors’ selling. It formed a Doji candle on the daily scale after the weakness of the last three sessions but the selling pressure is intact at higher zones, which needs to be negated for any kind of trend reversal. Till the index remains below 17,770, weakness could be seen towards 17,500 and 17,350 whereas hurdles exist at 17,950-18,000 zone.

What should investors do?
Investors are advised to use this dip for buying opportunities and bargain hunting in private banks, consumption, IT, auto and chemicals. Index traders can initiate bear put spread by buying 17,600 put and selling 17,400 put with a premium cost of around 60 points to play the downside hedge or move towards 17,400. Stock specific positive setup could be seen in Reliance, Maruti, ICICI Bank, Pidilite Industries and Power Grid. While weakness is likely in M&M Finance, ZEE, Dr Lal PathLabs and Voltas

SIDDARTH BHAMRE
DIRECTOR, ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS AND RESEARCH, INCRED EQUITIES

Where is Nifty headed in the week ahead of the Budget?
Last week’s correction has caused a lot of pain among retail participants as the mid-and small- cap segments corrected substantially with huge corrections in some of the widely-held names. This is an imported correction as the Dow fell significantly with the US Federal Reserve all set to raise interest rates in the near term due to rise in inflation. The Dow is reaching an important support zone of 33,600- 34,000 and the Nifty, too, has strong support around the 17,200-17,300 zone. The Dow has managed to bounce back from this support zone 3-4 times in the last six months or so. Nifty has consolidated around the above support in the recent past. From a medium-term perspective, equities are still in an uptrend as long as these zones are respected.

What should investors do?
It’s interesting to observe that despite the weakness in the Nifty (mainly due to the fall in the IT space), the private sector banking space has shown some signs of buying at lower levels. Bank Nifty has strong support around 36,500 levels and some of the heavyweights are showing signs of strength. It’s highly unlikely that the Nifty may breach important supports with some strength being visible in banking. There is sectoral churning and this correction so far appears more within a bull market. We would suggest not to get bearish till the important support zones across indices are respected. Banking and auto stocks are poised to outperform with selective FMCG names looking attractive after months of underperformance.

 

 

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Vijay Gomatam

Consultant – Investment Banking

Vijay Gomatam has over 20 years of banking experience across M&A, corporate finance, capital markets, and corporate banking, with a strong focus on cross-border deal origination and execution across India, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Australia. He has deep sector expertise in industrials, IT services, media, and telecom, with extensive experience in India - Southeast Asia and India–Japan transactions. Vijay previously served as Director at MUFG Bank, Singapore, where he led the India - Japan M&A corridor, and earlier worked with Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, Houlihan Lokey, and Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors.

His transaction experience includes Motherson Group’s acquisition of TSE-listed Yachiyo Industries, Takahata India’s stake sale to SPRL, Toppan Form’s acquisition of PT RDS in Indonesia, Mitsui’s investment in FKS Food & Agri, CVC’s investment in PT LinkNet, and capital market transactions for Southeast Asian media and telecom clients including SingTel, Axiata, and Bakrie Group.

He holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.E. (Hons.) from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Akbar Khan

Senior Advisor – Investment Banking

Akbar Khan has over twenty years of experience across M&A advisory, Private Equity, and Corporate M&A, along with a decade as an entrepreneur and operator. He has held senior roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in India and London, where he led Telecom & Technology Investment Banking, Private Equity coverage, and M&A, and at General Electric, where he served as Head of Corporate Development and M&A for India and the MENA region. He has advised global corporates and financial sponsors including Reuters Plc, Telecom Italia, Hellenic Telecom, MTN, Tata Group, Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus, and TA Associates, and has led several notable transactions. These include advising E2E Networks on

its USD 50M capital raise, QuEST Global on its USD 75M Series B private placement to Warburg Pincus, Rain Technologies on its USD 65M Series A financing from QED Investors and Invus, Augnito.ai on its Pre-Series A raise from Apollo Hospitals Group, Tata Consultancy Services on the acquisition of Citigroup’s captive back-office unit, Forthnet in Greece on the acquisition of Netmed, and Telecom Italia on the sale of Cosmote via a leveraged buyout by Apax Partners and TPG.

In addition, Akbar co-founded and served as CEO of Rain Technologies India an earned wage access fintech platform.

He holds an MBA from London Business School and is a UK-qualified Chartered Accountant.

Shreyan ML

Managing Director – Healthcare & Pharma

Shreyan ML leads the healthcare and pharma investment banking practice and brings over 15 years of experience across investment banking, corporate M&A, and management consulting within the pharmaceutical sector. Prior to joining MAPE, he worked with Spark Capital, Strides Group, Wanbury Limited, and Tata Strategic Management Group.

His deal experience includes advising Curatio Healthcare on the sale of its business to Torrent Pharmaceuticals; Sale of TTK’s human pharma business to Bharat Serums; Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on the sale of the Razel brand to KKR-backed JB Chemicals & Pharma and the sale of nine dermatology brands to Eris Oaknet.

As Corporate M&A Head at Strides Group, he was involved in thesale of Agila to Mylan and led the animal health strategy at Sequent Scientific, executing over 12 transactions including fundraises and cross-border acquisitions.

He holds an MBA from IIM Indore and is a computer engineer from NIT Karnataka.

Arjun Mukherjee

Managing Director – Investment Banking

Arjun Mukherjee brings over 20 years of investment banking experience, with a strong focus on mergers & acquisitions and capital raising across Industrials, Education, Telecom, Cement, and Healthcare sectors. Prior to joining InCred Capital, he was part of the senior leadership team at MAPE Advisory Group for over a decade and has previously worked with Lazard, Ambit Capital, and Macquarie Capital.

His deal experience includes advising Veranda Learning on multiple acquisitions and its IPO, Emami on its bid for Paras Pharma, HeidelbergCement on the acquisitions of Mysore Cement and Indo Rama Cement, Italcementi on the acquisition of Sri Vishnu Cement along with an open offer, Bharti Airtel on the acquisitions of Hexacom India and the Spice Calcutta circle, as well as the sale of NLD rights to VSNL, Advent on its bid for Lafarge India.

He has also advised Jagdale Industries on the sale of its electrolyte drinks brand to Johnson & Johnson, promoters of Orissa Sponge on stake sales to Bhushan Steel and Monnet Ispat and on takeover defence, Fortis Healthcare on takeover defence and the sale of a minority stake to Khazanah, ICI India on the sale of its Nitrocellulose business to Actis and its rubber chemicals business, Jai Balaji Industries on the sale of its DI pipe unit and on QIP fund raising, Orbit Corporation and Ansal APIL on QIP-led equity fund raises, Walton Street Capital on raising a USD 500 million India-focused real estate fund, and on acquisition debt funding for the purchase of the RL Fine Chem API business.

Ashish Ambwani

Managing Director – Investment Banking

Ashish Ambwani has two decades of investment banking experience with a focus on cross-border M&A and Private Equity, and deep sector expertise across Consumption &Retail, Industrials and Digital businesses. He previously served as Director at Lazard for over 12 years and began his career at KPMG.

He has worked on numerous transactions including Osam Dairy’s sale to Dodla Dairy, Livpure’s capital raise from M&G Investments, QIMA’s acquisition of EFRAC Limited, Raymond Consumer Care’s FMCG sale to Godrej Consumer, IPO of Ethos Limited, Manohar Packaging’s sale to Parksons Packaging, MM Polytech’s sale to Huhtamaki, YY Inc.’s acquisition of Bigo, Kama Ayurveda’s fund raise and sale to Puig, Magnet360’s sale to Mindtree, Danone’s acquisition of Wockhardt nutrition assets, UCB’s sale of Indian brands to Dr Reddy’s, Sabero Organics’ sale to Coromandel, International Paper on its acquisition of AP Paper, Avantor on its acquisition of RFCL.

He holds an MBA from IIM Lucknow and a has a degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from NIT Trichy.

Jacob Mathew

Consultant- Investment Banking

Jacob Mathew brings over 25 years of experience in investment banking, private equity, and fundraising. He co-founded MAPE Advisory, a boutique investment bank focused on mid-market companies. Prior to MAPE, he was a Vice President (M&A) at Merrill Lynch India and played a key role in setting up the corporate finance practice at PwC India.

He has worked and led numerous transactions including the acquisition of Coats Viyella’s garment business by the AV Birla Group, the sale of Burnol and Coldarin brands, Dr Reddy’s buyout of American Remedies, and the sale of Diamond Dychem to Ciba AG. At MAPE, he led transactions across technology, telecommunications, consumer, healthcare, and retail sectors. His key clients include Coffee Day Enterprises, Strides, Igarashi Motors, J&J India, and Jyothi Labs.

He holds a PGDM from IIM Calcutta and is a Civil Engineer.

M Ramprasad

Consultant – Investment Banking

M Ramprasad has over 25 years of experience across investment banking, private equity, and fundraising. He co-founded MAPE Advisory, a boutique Indian investment bank focused on mid-market companies, which later merged with the Investment banking team at InCred in 2020. Prior to MAPE, he was a Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch India, leading South India operations.

He has led marquee transactions for leading business groups including Tata Group, DuPont, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy’s, and Sify, and at MAPE advised on landmark deals across manufacturing, infrastructure, and financial services. His key clients include Murugappa Group, ELGi Equipments, Curatio, Jyothi Labs, Karvy Financial Group, Star Health, and CRH Group.

He holds a PGDM from BIM Trichy and a degree in Chemistry.

Sanjay Singh

Head of Investment Banking – InCred Capital

Sanjay Singh is the Head of Investment Banking at InCred Capital, where he leads coverage across both advisory and equity capital markets. He brings over 20 years of experience across investment banking, strategy, and operations, with deep expertise in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sectors.

Prior to joining InCred, he held leadership roles at BDA Partners as Head of India and Co-Head of Healthcare Asia, and at KPMG as Partner and Head of Life Sciences in India. He has also worked with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.

His transaction experience includes advising Chemfield Cellulose on its divestment to Oji Holdings, Archimica S.p.A. on its acquisition by PI Industries, Synokem Pharmaceuticals on growth investment from TA Associates, Isagro SpA on the divestment of Isagro Asia Agrochemicals to PI Industries, SMT on its equity raise from Morgan Stanley Private Equity, Astec LifeSciences on the sale of equity to Godrej Agrovet and Nihon Nohyaku on its acquisition of Hyderabad Chemical Limited amongst others.

Sanjay holds an MBA from IIM Bangalore and a B Tech from IIT BHU.