The complete list of 2018 stock recommendations

When I started investing in equities, I used to be in awe of equity research reports. Immaculately formatted 5-page documents with their glossy charts and tables of financial projections followed by a confident Buy / Sell / Hold recommendation based on a precise target price. I figured those target prices were arrived at by hardcore sector experts working with proprietary excel models of such complexity they would probably crash any computer with conventional specifications.

That awe lasted until I realized the “models” in use might as well have been random number generators due to their sensitivity to assumptions about an unknowable future. The conflict of interest many sell-side research analysts had with the companies they covered on account of the brokerage or investment banking business made them even less believable.

Therefore, my base assumption for any widely distributed research report or recommendation is that it’s not worth the digital screen-space it’s displayed on. Nevertheless, here’s a consolidated list of India stock recommendations for 2018 from various research houses (the ones I could find). Note that this list is for informational use only, none of these are my recommendations (some of the companies on the list shock me).

Note again, none of the stocks on this list are my recommendations. Funnily some of the recommendations already seem to have crossed their target price. Here goes:

(Price data is being fetched from Google Finance which is notoriously temperamental. If you see no data being fetched, please try coming back to the page in a short while.) 

 2018 stock recommendations by the professionals

This exercise is to track how recommendations by the professionals do during the course of this year. My hypothesis for the markets in 2018 is not as bright and it will be harder to outperform the index with a random set of stocks like in 2017.

Top 10 Performers (from the list above)

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Sources for 2018 stock recommendations:

• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/18-stocks-to-watch-out-for-in-2018/articleshow/62321970.cms
• https://www.indianotes.com/buy/Motilal-Oswal-Securities-top-stock-picks-for-2018/210213/12540103.00/C
• https://www.edelweiss.in/research/sector-specific-reports-2/Stock-Picks-for-2018-9f7afd
• https://www.zeebiz.com/india/news-these-stocks-can-be-good-option-for-investment-in-2018-axis-securities-34199
• https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/stocks/top-5-must-buy-stocks-which-can-give-up-to-37-return-in-the-year-2018-reliance-securities-2470367.html
• https://www.bloombergquint.com/markets/2018/01/03/these-12-stocks-made-it-to-clsas-2018-india-list
• https://www.angelbroking.com/research/top-picks-january-2018-research-report-03-01-2018-126243
• https://www.bloombergquint.com/markets/2018/01/01/analysts-top-stock-bets-for-2018
• https://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/top-10-stocks-morgan-stanley-recommends-bajaj-finance-maruti-itc-more-117092800429_1.html
• https://www.bloombergquint.com/markets/2017/11/03/deutsche-banks-top-stock-picks-ahead-of-union-budget-2018
• https://www.sharekhan.com/research/research-for-investor/model-portfolio/sharekhan-top-picks