

Stocks to buy: Raja Venkatraman's top picks for 26 December
Best stocks to buy today (All Buy trades are rates of Equity & Sell rates are based on F&O)Gravita India Ltd: Buy above ₹1870, stop ₹1800 target ₹2030 (Multiday)Laurus Labs Ltd: Buy above ₹1088, stop ₹1072 target ₹1115 (Intraday)PNB Housing Finance Ltd: Buy above ₹970, stop ₹950 target ₹1030 (Intraday)On 24 December, the Sensex and the Nifty ended lower ahead of the Christmas holiday, weighed down by FII selling and profit-booking across key sectors. The benchmark indices slipped from their intraday highs, with the Sensex closing at 85,408.70, down 116.14 points (0.14%), while the Nifty settled at 26,142.10, losing 37.45 points (0.14%).
The decline was largely attributed to foreign institutional investors offloading equities worth nearly ₹1,795 crore, marking the second consecutive day of net selling after a brief buying streak.Sectoral trends reflected profit-taking in IT, pharma, and oil and gas counters, with Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s among the notable laggards. Weakness in IT stocks was amplified by concerns over the US administration’s changes to the H-1B visa framework, which now prioritizes higher-paid and skilled applicants over the traditional lottery system.
While frontline indices remained subdued, small-cap stocks showed resilience, offering some support to overall market sentiment.Trends continue to indicate a limited response, and the way ahead appears to be fraught with uncertainty. As we have been pointing out, we have realized that the trends could remain challenged at higher levels as the trends continue to experience some disappointment after an encouraging start.
The lack of participation yet again ahead of a trading holiday emphasizes the need to reconsider our approach. Overall, the trends remain a
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