Stocks to buy: Raja Venkatraman's recommends top picks for 13 January

Three stocks to trade, recommended by NeoTrader’s Raja Venkatraman:

MEDPLUS (Cmp ₹846.25)

• Why it’s recommended: MedPlus Health Services Ltd is the second-largest pharmacy retail chain in India by revenue and store count. It utilizes an omni-channel platform, allowing customers to purchase products through physical stores. After spending the last few months, the prices have resolutely moved higher on Monday forming a large body candle. The positive DI is also inching higher indicating some positive vibes that are emerging. Look to initiate long.
• Key metrics:
  • P/E Ratio : 192.56
  • 52-week high: ₹1052.05,
  • Volume: 202.27K
• Technical analysis: Support at ₹797, resistance at ₹975.
• Risk factors: Intense competition in the fragmented retail market, significant working capital requirements, substantial promoter share pledging.
• Buy: Above ₹848.
• Stop loss: ₹818.
• Target price: ₹948 (2 Months)

ASIANPAINT (Cmp ₹2896.40)

• Why it’s recommended: Asian Paints is India's largest paint and home décor company, manufactures, sells, and distributes paints, coatings, and offers home décor services. A reaction into a strong set of supports around the cloud support region forming a nice rounding pattern. A strong long body candle around the TS & KS bands augurs well for some upside if market rebounds. A rise in the DI indicates that we can look to initiate a long opportunity here for a push to higher levels. Go long now.
• Key metrics:
  • P/E: 72.01,
  • 52-week high: ₹2985.50,
  • Volume: 1.74M.
• Technical analysis: Support at ₹611, resistance at ₹690.
• Risk factors: Volatile raw material costs (crude oil derivatives, TiO2), subdued consumer demand (downtrading), and challenges in its home decor segment.
• Buy: above ₹2900
• Stop loss: ₹2830
• Target price: ₹3050 (2 Months)

BSE (Cmp ₹2790.75)

• Why it’s recommended: BSE Ltd is Asia's first and oldest stock exchange and a cornerstone of the Indian capital market. Post some strong upmove the prices are seen taking a breather. With the momentum holding steady in the last few trading sessions the value resistance region around 2750 has been surpassed and strong upside has emerged in the last trading session. ADX is also seen charging higher hence we can look at some potential upward bounce.
• Key metrics:
  • P/E Ratio: 69.19
  • 52-week high: ₹3030
  • Volume: 7.69m
• Technical analysis: Support at ₹510, resistance at ₹541.
• Risk factors: Regulatory changes, intense market competition, susceptibility to macroeconomic conditions, and operational vulnerabilities like.
• Buy: Above ₹2795.
• Stop loss: ₹2720.
• Target price: ₹2925.

Stock market recap

Indian equity benchmarks staged a smart rebound on Monday, ending in positive territory after a volatile session that snapped a five-day losing streak. The NSE Nifty, which had slipped sharply in early trade amid weak sentiment, recovered from an intraday low to close near the day’s high, reflecting renewed investor confidence.

Markets opened on a cautious note despite supportive global cues, extending losses in the first half. However, a sharp mid-session recovery was triggered by optimism surrounding ongoing India–US trade discussions, with officials signaling constructive progress. The Nifty settled firmly higher, while the Sensex also posted notable gains, underscoring resilience in frontline stocks.

Broader markets, however, lagged the recovery. The midcap index closed marginally lower, and Smallcaps extended their underperformance, highlighting selective buying confined to large-cap counters. Overall, the session marked a turnaround in sentiment, with traders hopeful of sustained momentum in the days ahead.

Outlook for trading

The strong resolve to move higher has met with good demand. As the trends begin to hold over the last few days the long body candle revival has once again assured that the trends are beginning to take shape as a steady buying participation was witnessed through the day.

Levels are now back to last Wednesdays high. The fall seen on Tuesday on expiry saw the prices test 78.6% Fibonacci levels of the recent rise. With the bias and newsflow being bullish, the possibilities of a revival emerged. In such a situation, we need to remain calm and hold for any potential recovery. It would have been a wonder if one came out largely unscathed in the week.

The sharp rise seen on Tuesday highlights the strong KS support and the rebound seen could look to extend after a strong decline seen last week. The supplies at higher level will continue to test the confidence, but the recovery that is emerging swiftly from lower levels is signalling that the highs will continue to attract demand. With strong bullish possibilities emerging we can now see that the weekly charts are beginning to show some aggressive potential to move higher. As positive cues continue to emerge one should look at the potential to participate at every dip as the market retained the positive bias.

With results season generating some heat and rampant geopolitical newsflow driving up the volatility we need to see how to navigate the current trends. While market continues to offer umpteen opportunities sector rotation will be at work and hence, we have selected candidates that are displaying steady action from both sides until new signals to the contrary emerge.

For undertaking shorts, we need to see Nifty move above 25500 which is the immediate support as per the Open Interest data. The breach mentioned earlier did happen indicating that the trends remain delicately poised.

The best approach is to continue to look at a 30-minute range breakout on Friday as we can consider to trade on either side as the trends still remain tentative where we expect some resistances to kick in.

While the trends in the indices are still unclear there is plenty of action as far as the stocks are concerned. We should now restrain from entering short positions in the Nifty and await some confirmation from Nifty to move above 25900. One can maintain that , viewing any sustained move below that level as a clear sign that bullish conviction is waning. The resistances have now moved from 26250 to 26000, while open interest shows that the road ahead is more open.

Raja Venkatraman is co-founder, NeoTrader. His Sebi-registered research analyst registration no. is INH000016223.

Investments in securities are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing. Registration granted by Sebi and certification from NISM in no way guarantees performance of the intermediary or provide any assurance of returns to investors.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.