SBI, HDFC Bank, LIC among top seven picks of Centrum for December

Centrum Broking seven top High Conviction Picks for December include HDFC Bank Ltd, State Bank of India. Dabur India Ltd, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Life Insurance Corporation of India, HDFC Life Insurance Company, Bandhan Bank.

State Bank of India (SBI) , the Public Sector Banking and Financial services company remains among top picks of Centrum with target price of Rs.665 indicating more than 9% upside for the stock from current market price of close to Rs. 608.

As per Centrum Broking after many years of low credit growth and rising NPAs (non performing assets) and write-offs and provisioning, SBI now is coming out of its shadows and showing growth. In Q2 and the last few quarters, SBI has shown good growth and low NPAs. Its valuation remains attractive relative to its private sector peers. It remains a good play on India’s financial inclusion and growth story.

Dabur India Limited is the fourth largest FMCG Company in India, remains another top pick of Centrum with target price of ₹650- ₹700 indicating upside of 18-27% from current market price of close to Rs.550 for the stock.

Dabur has a very strong portfolio of brands that are capable of giving higher than industry growth, says Centrum. As per Centrum Focus on building capabilities, rural penetration and focus on brands can lead to superlative growth in the long term.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises, with a target price of Rs.300, is another top pick of Centrum. The stock is trading at close to Rs.252 levels and Centrum target price indicates more than 19% upside.

Zee-Sony merger as per Centrum institutional Broking will create a media company with more than 75 channels in different languages. Post-merger it has the potential to dominate in digital media and broadcasting businesses. As per Centrum, Sony will infuse 11300 crore in the merged entity along with an expected Ebitda of 5000 crore to be generated annually. There is a huge financial war-chest for investment in content and OTT platforms as per the brokerage

Life Insurance Corporation of India with target price of Rs.750 is among the key picks of Centrum, indicating an upside of 6% from current levels of ₹750.

Investment Rationale as per Centrum institution Broking is that LIC is trading at a discount to its Embedded Value which offers significant value com fort. As seen from Q1 results, LIC still is a dominant player and despite its huge size, their market share is still increasing. The regulatory changes done with respect to the PAR and Non PAR business is likely to significantly increase the profitability in the long run, feels Centrum.

HDFC Life Insurance Company is recommended by Centrum with a target price of Rs.750 indicating an upside of more than 12% from current market price of close to Rs.670 for the stock.

Investment Rationale as per Centrum for HDFC Life is that it is a leading private-sector life insurance company in India and operates in a sector with huge potential and fast growth. In the last four years, HDFC Life has shown consistent improvement in operating parameters like persistency ratio,