We recently published a list of the 10 Best Indian Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. In this article, we will take a look at where ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) stands against other best Indian stocks.
India’s stock market had a rough ride during the second half of FY25, amid uncertainty around US tariffs, weak earnings, and persistent foreign outflows. Analysts expect the volatility to extend into the new financial year, especially after the Trump administration unveiled fresh tariffs on April 2.
READ ALSO: 10 Best European Stocks To Buy According to Billionaires and 20 Stocks Insiders Bought in April After Trump’s Tariff Rollout.
In recent years, millions of Indian investors have piled into stocks, hoping to build wealth by betting on their country’s strong economic growth. Social media has been buzzing with ‘finfluencers’ offering financial advice and trends. Easy-to-open online brokerage accounts and stock funds have also wooed the population, especially youngsters and retirees, into investing.
Several notable billionaires have also made significant investments in Indian stocks, reflecting the market’s growing appeal. As of November 2024, Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners was the fourth-largest shareholder in Gautam Adani’s firm. Late last year, billionaire Azim Premji’s private equity firm also acquired a 1.6% stake in a leading Indian technology services and consulting company.
Last Monday, many investors were dealt a blow as the stock market lost $170 billion, with two of the country’s most prominent indexes plummeting from fears that Trump’s new tariffs would ignite a global recession. Foreign institutional investors sold shares valued at $1.05 billion during the day, the highest outflow since February 28. The market fell again on Wednesday, as the 27% tariff on Indian exports to the US took effect.
Here is what Nilesh Shah, managing director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, was quoted by Reuters as saying about the situation:
“Indian markets are unable to quantify the uncertainty unleashed by the tariff war. The unfolding events will likely keep sellers on an aggressive sell mode and buyers on a reluctant buy mode.”
On April 9, the Reserve Bank of India cut the interest rate by 0.25% and reduced its growth forecast for this year from 6.7% to 6.5%. Sanjay Malhotra, the governor of the central, stated the following in a speech:
“The recent trade tariff-related measures have exacerbated uncertainties, clouding the economic outlook across regions, posing new headwinds for global growth and inflation.”
While multiple brokerage firms expect the tariffs to hurt India’s GDP growth for FY26, government officials in Delhi, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to a media outlet, expect the country to meet the 6.3%-6.8% growth projection if oil prices stay below $70 per barrel. A finance ministry official said they had already made provisions in the budget for duty remission schemes to help exporters.
A view of a busy banking hall, customers engaging with banking staff to conduct their financial transactions.
Methodology
For this article, we scanned Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 proprietary database of billionaires’ stock holdings and identified Indian stocks from the list. From there, we picked the top 10 stocks with the highest number of billionaires having a stake in them. Where two or more stocks were tied on billionaire sentiment, we used the dollar value of billionaire holdings as a tiebreaker between them.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN)
Number of Billionaires: 8
Billionaire Holdings: $2,455,097,770
ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN) is a leading financial services company, offering a range of services to corporate and retail customers. The bank has a vast nationwide network of 5,900 branches and 16,650 ATMs across India.
The company reported strong results for the quarter that ended December 31, 2024, with profit after tax growing 14.8% year-over-year to $1.4 billion. ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN)’s total period-end deposits were also up by 14.1% from last year to $177.6 billion. Average deposits were 13.7% higher than the comparable period in 2023.
Including profits for the nine months, ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN)’s CET-1 ratio stood at 15.93%, while the bank’s capital adequacy ratio was 16.60%. The results have bolstered investor sentiment, which is reflected in the YTD returns of 4% in the stock, while most Indian companies have struggled this year. Shares were up by 3.47% over the past week in anticipation of the company’s upcoming board meeting on April 19 to approve financial results for the quarter ending March 31.
According to Insider Monkey’s database for Q4 2024, 8 billionaires held a stake in ICICI Bank Limited (NYSE:IBN), with combined holdings of over $2.45 billion. It is one of the best Indian stocks to buy.
Overall, IBN ranks 3rd among the 10 best Indian stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of financial services companies, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than IBN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
