Value traps or undervalued? 18 companies in BSE500 index trade at low price-to-book value

(Published in Moneycontrol)
Clearly many companies look undervalued but the real question is should one consider investing in these companies or are they value traps?
The Indian market has rallied about 50 percent from the lows recorded in March 2020. After a sharp rise, investors are now looking to add stocks that are trading at attractive valuations.
One of the ways to identify a company based on its value is Price-to-Book ratio which in simple terms measures the market value of a company relative to its book value.
P/B is a good tool to do bottom fishing when there is a very sharp correction in either the index or a company’s stock price as when there is a threat to earnings in the short term, P/E looks expensive which can be misleading, suggest experts.