On a year-to-date basis, the top gainer in his Rs 1,500-crore portfolio is smallcap civil construction stock Om Infra which has rallied 271%. He had picked up 24,65,912 equity shares, or 2.56% stake in Om Infra during the September quarter when the company returned to black with a quarterly profit of Rs 22.23 crore.
Patel Engineering is the second biggest performer in Kedia’s portfolio and has rallied 255% so far in the year. Like Om Infra, Patel Engineering is also a bet on India’s infrastructure story.
“It was having some debt in its books but now they are reducing their debt….In my view, it is a sunrise industry and they can service their debt, so I am comfortable,” Kedia had said earlier.
Other multibaggers in his basket include Innovators Facade Systems, Neuland Laboratories, Talbros Automotive Components, Elecon Engineering, Precision Camshafts, Repro India, Affordable Robotic & Automation and Atul Auto.
None of his holding stocks have given negative returns this year. Details are, however, available only of those companies in which Kedia has at least 1% stake.
Others in the list include Tejas Networks, Sudarshan Chemical Industries, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts, Vaibhav Global and Siyaram Silk Mills.
In market value terms, Kedia’s biggest holding is in Atul Auto (Rs 337 crore), followed by Tejas (Rs 274 crore) and Elecon Engineering (Rs 169 crore).
While keeping his portfolio heavily biased towards hidden gems in the world of small and mid-caps, Kedia isn’t known to churn his portfolio much.
What should investors do?
Tracking the portfolio choices of star investors can help you understand how the masters of the market are picking stocks but blindly following them can be a risky game as it is tougher to imitate their conviction levels, risk-taking appetite and holding period.
In the new year 2024, analysts say themes such as manufacturing, PSUs, and healthcare could be rewarding.
“2024 will be an interesting year as developed economies are likely to slow down, but challenges of rate hikes are unlikely. The year could see the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by mid-year, which will help the equity markets. However, elections in India and the US elections are likely to result in higher volatility, which means reduced market breadth and focus shifting to liquidity and quality management within the portfolio. Overall, it is a good time to take some profits in small caps and deploy in quality large caps and quality PSUs,” said Naveen Kulkarni, Chief Investment Officer, Axis Securities PMS.
While it seems that the market has priced in most of these near-term positives, analysts expect Nifty to return high single-digit gains in 2024.
“With current valuations offering a limited scope of further expansion, an increase in corporate earnings will be the primary driver of the market returns moving forward. Hence, bottom-up stock picking with a focus on a combination of old economy and export stories would be a key to generating satisfactory returns in the next one year,” said Neeraj Chadawar of Axis Securities.
(Data: Ritesh Presswala)
(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)