Key Sectors to Watch Post-Budget 2026: Healthcare and Real Estate
Broking houses are becoming more selective amid evolving policy signals, identifying healthcare and real estate as two sectors worth keeping on the radar. While CLSA sees structural, long-term drivers emerging from government policy in both segments, ICICI Direct highlights stock-specific opportunities in pharmaceuticals with strong earnings visibility. Together, these views point to theme-based investing rather than short-term rerating trades.
CLSA on Healthcare The healthcare theme is policy-driven and not a short-term pharmaceuticals rerating, as the government’s FY27 healthcare budget is expected to increase by 33% YoY. The focus is more on medical tourism, biopharma ecosystems, human capital, and healthcare infrastructure. The reduction in customs duties is a positive for MNC pharma companies, as it will help reduce their costs, but it will have limited upside for Indian generic companies. Consequently, large hospital chains are identified as the key beneficiaries, as their capex, infrastructure, and patient volumes will increase.
ICICI Direct on These Two Stocks Additionally, ICICI Direct has a positive outlook on both Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Ajanta Pharma, based on their strong fundamentals, earnings visibility, and the role they play in the pharma segment. For Sun Pharma, the broker points out the resilience of its speciality portfolio, domestic formulations business, and strong cash flows, which mitigate risks of volatility in the US generics business, justifying a target price of Rs 1,910 (with a potential upside of 13%).
For Ajanta Pharma, ICICI Direct is positive on its branded generics business model, debt-free balance sheet, and high return ratios, with consistent performance in India and emerging markets justifying the target price of Rs 3,270 (with a potential upside of 18%).
CLSA on the Realty Sector Global broking firm CLSA has taken a positive stance on the real estate sector, emphasizing that the recent budget announcements have given the sector strong structural support for the long term. By identifying DLF and Embassy REIT as its top picks, CLSA is clearly optimistic about developers and vehicles that are in sync with the changing Indian commercial real estate landscape.
One of the major positives, in CLSA’s opinion, is the enhanced policy clarity on taxes and compliance for Global Capability Centres (GCCs), in addition to the tax holiday being extended until 2047 for foreign companies establishing data centres. This move is expected to give a substantial boost to demand for quality office space and specialized infrastructure, which will benefit developers with robust annuity asset portfolios and those with the ability to unlock land for data centre development.
Although the broking firm recognizes that curbs on the use of MAT credits may turn out to be a mid-term earnings drag, it considers this to be a manageable risk. CLSA is of the view that the magnitude and sustainability of the opportunities that are likely to emerge from the GCC growth and data centre investments would ultimately outweigh the mentioned negatives, and thus the overall policy trend would be highly positive for the real estate industry.
