KYI: Expert tells you what to buy, sell or hold

The Indian market has been extremely volatile over the last many sessions. Moneycontrol.com got Gaurav Dua, head research, Sharekhan to answer the stock queries you sent us on our Facebook page as part of KYI (Know Your Investment). Check out his comments.

Check out: StanChart's top picks in auto sector Mgr Ganesh: What is your call on the Nifty for August? A: We expect the Nifty to remain in broad range of 4,950 to 5,450 for the next couple of months. Hardik Dattani: What's your view on Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)? A: TCS is among the best performing IT services companies. It has shown much better volume growth compared to its peers. The management is confident of achieving 12-14% growth in revenues in USD terms in FY13. That is a much healthier pace than 5% guide given by Infosys. We continue to prefer TCS over other stocks in the frontline IT services sector. Among the mid-caps IT sector, NIIT Tech has been our top pick. Durgesh Kumar Srivastava: What about Reliance Industries (RIL)? A: There are several issues related to RIL's growth over the next few quarters. That is leading to its underperformance as compared to other index stocks. We do not see any respite in the near-term. However, investors with slightly longer term view should accumulate the stock. Anupriya Chaturvedi: What is your view on Coal India? A: We are concerned about the government interference in the operations of Coal India. We prefer Oil India in the energy sector. Veena S Mehta: Is this the right time to purchase Axis Bank? A: After the recent correction, the valuations of Axis Bank have turned attractive. But the asset quality conccerns (potential bad loans) would be drag on valuations in the near-term. We prefer ICICI Bank at the current juncture. Vikrant Gupta: What's your call on IDBI and Essar Oil for long-term? A: We have a 'buy' call on IDBI as it trades at considerable discount to its book value. Essar Oil is not under our coverage, but we beleive that the asset created by Essar Oil would yield good profits going ahead. The huge debt on books and sales tax hit (post it lost case against Gujara government) is a concern and would limit upside from here.  _PAGEBREAK_ Aadi Gupta: What is your view on Gammon Infra? A: Infra companies are under stress due to rising interest rates, intense competition, delay in execution and cost escalation related hit on profits. Some of them like Gammon are worst hit. We prefer road developers like IL&FS Transportion and IRB Infra in the infra space. Durgesh Kumar Srivastava: What is the future of BHEL? A: BHEL is facing structural issues. Drying up of order inflow would result in weak financial performance in the coming couple of years. Vineet Kalra: What about 3i Infotech? A: Avoid the stock as it has huge debt on it books and the core business is also suffering. Prefer NIIT Tech, Tera Soft. Pratap Jinnuri: What could be the short-term high for Bharti, SBI and Punjab National Bank (PNB)? A: These are all portfolio stocks and should be accumulated with longer time frame for material gains. It is difficult to predict prices in the near-term based on fundamentals.  Vatsal Mokati: What about SKS Microfinance? A: The stock has already moved up sharply on news of fund raising through QIP placement and potential recoveries of huge write off taken in Andhra Pradesh. Do not chase the stock after the sharp run up and wait for lower levels to enter the stock with trading objective only. Shibu Kola: Do you think REI Agro is trading at a very discount rate as against its fundamentals? Is this range good for investing in it? A Most rice processing companies have suffered in the past couple of years due to correction in rice prices and lower exports. However, we believe the cycle could turn up sooner than later and the fortunes of the rice companies could revive in general. We do not have insight into REI in particular.