Stock market recommendations: According to Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, the top stock picks for the week (starting July 28, 2025) are VA Tech WABAG, and HDFC Bank. Let’s take a look:
VA Tech WABAGVA Tech is a global leader in water treatment and a strong play on the long-term structural water treatment theme, with rising demand driven by pollution, scarcity, and regulatory needs. It ranks 3rd as a private water operator globally (up from 6th in 2019 and 10th in 2017).It operates an asset-light model and boasts 125+ Intellectual property rights, focusing on high-margin engineering & procurement and long-term O&M projects. Robust ₹137b order book (4.2x FY25 revenue) & ₹200b bid pipeline support 15–20% revenue CAGR visibility over FY25–28. Strategic initiatives like ‘Wriddhi’ bolster its growth and profitability outlook. Improving margins, strong FCF (~₹3.5b/year), net cash status, & rising RoCE/RoE make it a high-quality compounder.HDFC BankHDFC Bank is well-positioned to deliver a strong earnings rebound, supported by improving loan growth across Commercial & Rural Banking (CRB), SME, and retail segments. With normalization of the CD ratio and a granular liability profile, the bank is poised to accelerate credit growth—guided to be in line with the system in FY26 and ahead in FY27. Robust asset quality (GNPA/NNPA at 1.4%/0.5% in 1QFY26) and provisioning buffers (INR366b) provide comfort, while margin recovery is expected as high-cost borrowings are replaced by deposits. We estimate HDFCB to deliver FY27E RoA/RoE of 1.9%/14.9%.(Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market and other asset classes given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India)
