Sensex rose 1,000 points in August; these 32 stocks hit all-time highs & rose up to 50%

Global events such as trade tensions, US Fed meeting on rate hikes, Brexit discussions, Italian budget etc. are likely to keep markets volatile,” Teena Virmani, Vice President – Research at Kotak Securities Ltd told Moneycontrol

Indian markets made history in the month of August with the Sensex hitting a fresh record high of 38,989 while the Nifty50 rose above 11,700 levels to hit a lifetime high of 11,760.20.
The S&P BSE Sensex rallied as much as 1,039 points while the Nifty50 rose 324 points or 2.8 percent in August but the action was more in individual stocks.

There were as many 32 stocks in the S&P BSE 500 index which hit fresh all-time highs along with benchmark indices in the same period.
Stocks which hit a fresh all-time high and rallied up to 50 percent in the S&P BSE 500 index include names like Vinati Organics (up 47 percent), followed by Pfizer (up 35 percent), Zensar Technologies (up 35 percent), and V-Mart (up 30 percent).
India market climbed all wall of worries to touch fresh highs in August but the journey from here on offers limited upside, feel experts. Falling rupee, rising crude oil prices, high valuations, as well as looming trade war fears are some of the factors which could cap the upside.

However, better than expected GDP numbers for the June quarter will act as a tailwind for markets in the first week of September when trading resumes on Monday.

“Global events such as trade tensions, US Fed meeting on rate hikes, Brexit discussions, Italian budget etc. are likely to keep markets volatile,” Teena Virmani, Vice President – Research at Kotak Securities Ltd, told Moneycontrol.

“With market valuations trading near 18x FY20 estimates thereby leaving little room for upside, it is advisable to have a bottom-up approach,” she said.

She further added that the bias continues to remain for companies likely to benefit from improved consumption, currency depreciation such as IT and Pharma as well as sectors likely to benefit from higher government spending such as infrastructure.

Midcap stocks did show some signs of bottoming out in August but it will be difficult to say that the pain is over and stock selection will be the key. There is tremendous value in select mid-cap stocks, especially after the recent correction.

Nearly 30 stocks in the S&P BSE Midcap index gave double-digit returns to the tune of 10-40 percent in the month of August which includes names like Aditya Birla Fashion, United Breweries, Reliance Communications, Apollo Hospitals, JST Steel, and Piramal Enterprises etc. among others.

"The value is in the mid-caps today is tremendous after the recent selloff in this space. A large part of the large-cap universe, especially retail banks and consumer stocks are somewhat overvalued despite strong growth fundamentals," Sandip Sabharwal, asksandipsabharwal.com, told Moneycontrol.

"Capital goods and infrastructure stocks, select pharmaceutical Stocks and individual stocks in mid-caps offer value," he added