Surat, April 28, 2026: HDFC Securities, one of India’s leading stockbrokers, today hosted a press conference in Surat to share its latest equity market outlook for investors and traders from Surat and the wider South Gujarat region.
The session was led by Mr. Devarsh Vakil, Head – Prime Research, HDFC Securities. Interacting with media representatives from Surat, he presented a data-backed view on the Indian economy, equity markets, and sectoral opportunities, with a special focus on what the current environment means for entrepreneurs, professionals, and families who are steadily increasing their allocation to financial assets.
“Surat is one of the most dynamic business hubs in India, with strong entrepreneurial energy in textiles, diamonds, real estate, and services,” said Mr. Devarsh Vakil, Head – Prime Research, HDFC Securities. “As incomes rise and businesses scale up, more Suratis are looking beyond traditional assets towards equities, mutual funds, and other market-linked products. Our endeavour is to equip them with clear research and robust tools so they can make informed decisions.”
Markets: near-term caution, medium-term opportunity for disciplined Surat investors
Mr. Vakil noted that, over the last two years, Indian equities have underperformed some global and emerging market indices and even domestic assets like gold and silver, influenced by foreign investor outflows, currency weakness and geopolitical tensions. At the same time, Nifty valuations have corrected closer to their 10-year average, while midcaps and smallcaps look relatively more expensive, making largecaps comparatively attractive for investors looking to build core portfolios.
He highlighted that major geopolitical events have typically been followed by meaningful recoveries in the months after the initial correction. Seasonality trends also indicate that the April–June quarter has often been one of the better periods for Nifty performance over the last 15 years, which is especially relevant for business owners and professionals who tend to have seasonal cash flows and look to deploy surplus funds in planned intervals rather than in a lump sum.
The HDFC Securities Prime Research team expects Indian markets to gradually end their phase of underperformance versus broader emerging markets and believes Nifty has the potential to deliver better returns than gold from current levels. Key sectors identified as potential outperformers for the current year include energy, commodities, steel, and mining.
From a level perspective, the team views 24,600 on Nifty as a crucial resistance; a sustained move above this zone could open the path towards new all-time highs, which are expected around Diwali 2026, subject to global and domestic developments. Long-term supports are placed around 23,500 and 22,200, and any corrections are likely to be more stock- and sector-specific rather than broad-based, creating opportunities for patient accumulation.
“Bounce Back Basket” for active investors
To illustrate how investors can approach the current environment, HDFC Securities Prime Research presented a “Bounce Back Basket”: a curated set of ideas across oil marketing, aviation, construction & engineering, cement, automobiles, auto components & defense, paints, realty, hotels, and electronics manufacturing services. While not stock recommendations for short-term trading, the basket showcases the kind of fundamentally strong companies the team believes can benefit as geopolitical risks stabilise and India’s domestic growth drivers remain intact.
The event also featured a walkthrough of HDFC SKY, the company’s new-age trading and investing platform for traders and investors. Key capabilities showcased included a professional F&O dashboard with smart option chain, OI Analysis, and readymade strategies, flat fees of Rs. 20 per order, SKY Signals for intraday pattern detection, a research dashboard offering over 20 years of research at no additional cost, and advanced order types such as trailing stop-loss and GTT conditional orders.
“Surat has a large and growing community of informed traders and long-term investors,” Mr. Vakil added. “With HDFC SKY, our aim is to put institutional-grade research, analytics, and order tools in their hands through a simple, intuitive app so they can participate more confidently in India’s growth story.”
