India's benchmark stock market indices are likely to open positive ahead of the US Fed meeting starting later today.

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Sensex and Nifty ended higher for the sixth straight session on Tuesday, boosted by strong global cues and the rupee. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 38,095, up 70 points, while the broader NSE Nifty50 settled at 11,479, up 52 points.

Among the brokerages, Credit Suisse prefers ICICI Bank, SBI, L&T, and BHEL to consumption stocks like Ultratech Cements, HUL and Maruti Suzuki. It is selectively overweight on the IT sector and has maintained an outperform rating on L&T. Macquarie also maintained outperform rating on Zee Entertainment but has raised the stock's target price to Rs 540 per share.

Here are the top brokerage calls for the day:

Credit Suisse Market Strategy

- Global equity-only risk appetite has moved to the highest levels seen this decade

- Rally in India over the last month was a catch-up

- Despite strong outperformance India is 43rd among top 50 markets (YTD) in dollar returns

- Small and midcaps have bounced as they do after a period of underperformance

- Economic growth in India continues to decelerate

- Rally in midcap & small caps provide an opportunity to exit

- Discount Of midcaps to Nifty is not large enough

- Prefer ICICI Bank, SBI, L&T and BHEL to consumption stocks like UltraTech, HUL and Maruti

- Selectively overweight on IT sector

Credit Suisse on L&T

- Maintain outperform, target at Rs 1,700 per share

- Doing well with strong order inflow, execution momentum

- Mindtree transaction would be EPC dilutive for L&T by 2-3 percent

- It may not have any synergy with another subsidiary in the same business

- L&T Infotech and merger of the two may happen only after a long drawn process

Macquarie on Zee Ent

- Maintain outperform, target raised to Rs 540 from Rs 434 per share

- Assess the impact of Sony potentially acquiring a stake

- Potential deal with Sony to be beneficial for minority shareholders

- Minority shareholders will benefit provided current management is retained

- Recent rally in company lends comfort on timely conclusion of deal at a fair valuation

Jefferies on ICICI Lombard

- Initiate with a buy call, target at Rs 1,136 per share

- Rare opportunity in financial space

- Well placed for RoEs in excess of 20 percent and earnings growth of 25 percent over FY19-21

- Expect a long growth runway for the sector on strong demand

CLSA on Media

- India media distribution is seeing consolidation

- If a deal between Bharti Group and Dish TV unfolds, merged company to have over 25 percent of pay-TV households

- Possible merger may be a stock deal and would help Bharti Airtel list its DTH business

- Valuation gap between Airtel and Dish TV’s possible merger to be key hurdle

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First Published:Mar 19, 2019 8:08 AM IST