3 Month Performance Of Outlook Business’ Stock Wizards

One of the most sensible things that Outlook Business has done is to persuade several stock wizards to identify their best stock picks for the year.

This is a clear-cut bonanza for amateur investors like us because we get stellar stock picks, with a detailed rationale, on a platter. Then, it is up to us to decide whether we want to act on the recommendation or not.

In CY2014, Ajay Relan ruled the roost with his stock pick MPS blowing away the charts with a mind-blowing 267% gain. There were several others who posted gains in excess of 100%.

Let’s note the performance in the first quarter of CY2015:

Average return: 4.2%
Nifty’s gain in 3 months: 2.5%

Surprisingly, Ajay Relan hasn’t found his magic touch yet. His stock pick Career Point is down in the dumps with an 8% loss. Keeping him company in the losers list are distinguished stock pickers like Saurabh Mukherjea and Basant Maheshwari. Their respective stock picks, Cola India and Hawkins Cookers, are also showing modest losses ranging from 5% to 15%. Daljeet’s stock pick Lumax Auto Tech has lost 23%.

Manish Bhandari heads the winners list because his stock pick Shilpa Medicare put up a spectacular show with 44% gains in the wake of the news that the USFDA had inspected its facilities as a precursor to approval. If the approval comes through, we can expect more gains from Shilpa.

Anish Damania and Niraj Dalal also came out winners because their stock picks, UPL and Dish TV, posted handsome gains ranging from 25% to 29%.

The field is still wide open because we have nine more months for the calendar year. There could be several upsets along the way depending on the way the quarterly results flow.