Here’s a quick peek at stocks with most brokerage downgrades

With the Indian stock market taking a breather over fresh concerns about the new variant of coronavirus that threatens to affect business and economic activity across the world, coupled with a view that local bourses have run way past their fundamentals, investors are taking a cautious stance on companies big and small.

Looking at the fundamentals and other scenario, brokerage houses come out with their estimate of the price at which one should buy or sell stocks. Their recommendations are by no means the final word but they do give a directional note that investors should keep a watch on.

We picked a list of companies that have seen more than one brokerage house downgrade their price target of a specific company to create a set of companies that may see bearish sentiments.

Topping the chart here is fast-moving consumer goods firm Britannia Industries, which makes biscuits and other bakery and dairy products. The company, controlled by Wadia Group, has seen as many as six brokerages downgrade the stock.

Other stocks that are a notch behind with five downgrades or price target cutback in the past one month include two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp and drugmakers Aurobindo Pharma, Glenmark Pharma and Granules India.

Further below we get names like Bajaj Auto, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Lupin, Petronet LNG, Emami, Alembic Pharma, JK Lakshmi Cement, TeamLease, Kalpataru Power and Lumax Industries.

This shows how two-wheeler makers and pharmaceutical companies, besides selective FMCG companies, are especially seeing bearish sentiments.

There are another two dozen stocks that have seen at least two downgrades or price target cuts by analysts.

If we scan through the large caps among these companies, we get Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Shree Cements, Motherson Sumi, Eicher Motors, UPL, Gujarat Gas, SAIL, NMDC, Vodafone Idea, Colgate-Palmolive, Kansai Nerolac, Laurus Labs, Escorts and Minda Industries.

In the mid-cap space, brokerages have added a bearish tone in their analyst reports for Amber Enterprises, Mahanagar Gas, Avanti Feeds and EPL.

The remaining companies in the pack with brokerage downgrades are small caps with market valuation of under Rs 5,000 crore. These include Aarti Drugs, NOCIL, Indoco Remedies, Mishra Dhatu Nigam, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Kaveri Seed, IG Petrochemicals and Shalby.