Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and State Bank of India (SBI) are among stocks that beat some of the most-valued stocks on Dalal Street such as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Infosys Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), or Adani stocks, in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap) addition in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
HZL rallied 76 per cent since April 19, adding roughly Rs 1.3 lakh crore to its m-cap, as per data compiled from corporate database AceEquity. This is against a combined m-cap addition of Rs 60,972 crore by five most-valued companies on BSE namely RIL, Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel, during the same period.
Against a close of Rs 404.75 apiece on April 18, the Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta group firm settled at Rs 711.75 on Wednesday. A couple of brokerages upped their Ebitda estimates for FY25 and FY26 on capacity addition and higher zinc and silver prices but felt the stock is factoring in all positives post the recent run.
Shares of Hindustan Aeronautics climbed 37 per cent in the elections season, with the manufacturer of fighter jets, helicopters, jet engine, adding Rs 91,860 crore to its m-cap. Arihant Capital said the current order book and pipeline will keep HAL’s manufacturing lines occupied until 2032, propelling the company into the next growth trajectory. Nomura India said it remains positive on HAL given its strong order backlog and robust pipeline backed by IAF’s fleet management, and prioritization of legacy fleet and platform replacements, which should provide long-term growth visibility.
“We believe HAL’s capability could be upgraded significantly due to the GE deal for manufacturing of complex fighter jet engines, providing autonomy for the development of future fighter jet programs such as Kaveri. In addition to defence, HAL is also diversifying into maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of commercial aircraft maintenance by partnering with Airbus, which is potentially margin accretive,” it said.
SBI gained 10.5 per cent in the election season and added Rs 69,745.84 crore to its market capitalisation. SBI has 28 ‘strong buy’ calls but at an average target price of Rs 885, as per Trendlyne, suggests limited upside potential for the stock. Bernstein recently downgraded SBI to ‘Market-Perform’ as it feels better growth prospect from a new-found willingness to raise capital is fully priced in.
Bharti Airtel Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Siemens Ltd and Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd added Rs 50,000-68,000 crore to their m-cap. Bharat Electronics Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, ABB India Ltd, Power Finance Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, REC Ltd, Power Grid Corporation Of India Ltd, Vodafone Idea Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd and Adani Power Ltd also added substantially to their m-caps this elections season.