Historically, real estate, metals, IT and energy stocks delivered strong returns in the month of December, as suggested by past performance of their sector benchmarks. These sectors have managed to generate positive returns 70-80 percent of the time since 2008.
In the case of BSE Realty, the index returned an average return of 4.91 percent in December, and the real estate barometer ended up 71 percent of the time since 2008. The index returned a maximum return of 45.68 percent in the month. and has fallen a maximum of 12.44 percent.
The BSE Metal Index closed the month up 79 percent of the time, with an average return of 4.83 percent. This index delivered a maximum return of 18.96 percent and has fallen a maximum of 9.11 percent for December.
The BSE IT Index ranks third with an average return of 3.17 percent. This index finished highest at 71 percent of Decembers since 2008. This index posted its best December gains with gains of 11.99 percent and its worst with gains of 9.11 percent since 2008. For Power, the average return is 2.04 percent. This index has risen 79 percent of the time, according to a monthly technical analysis of sectors by Axis Securities.
Assessing the sector turnover data, Axis Securities said that "TI has moved into the 'Improvement Quadrant', indicating that sentiment may turn bullish. The metal has entered the 'Leading Quadrant' and is expected to outperform Sensex." .
In the case of BSE Realty, Axis said the index has a strong long-term uptrend; However, in the short term, the index continues to consolidate within the 3900-3000 levels and a decisive break above 3900 levels may trigger the continuation of the uptrend towards 4200-4500 levels. On the other hand, an immediate support zone is placed around the 3400-3300 levels, he said.
The brokerage is bullish on Phoenix Mills, DLF, Prestige Estates and Oberoi Realty and neutral on Sobha, Brigade, Indiabulls Real Estate, Lodha (Macrotech Developers), Sunteck and Godrej Properties.
Among metal stocks, it is positive on Coal India, Welspun Corp and Ratnamani Metals, while remaining neutral on SAIL, Tata Steel, Hindustan Zinc, Hindalco, Vedanta, Jindal Steel, JSW Steel and Hindustan Copper, among others.
Among energy stocks, he likes Adani Power, NTPC, NHPC, ABB, Thermax and Siemens, while he was neutral on BHEL, Tata Power, PTC, Torrent Power, CESC, Kalpataru Power, Adani Transmission and Power Grid.
In the IT package, the brokerage is bullish on KPIT Tech only. It is neutral on Coforge, HCL Tech, Mphasis, Infosys, Wipro, Tata Elxsi, Mindtree, TCS, LTIMindtree and Tech Mahindra among others.
Also read: Phoenix Mills, TCI Express, DLF, GSPL and Greenpanel Ind: Here's what analysts had to say about these 5 stocks
