Mumbai, Oct. 27: Bargain hunters are on the prowl.

The vicious market meltdown has provided investors with a great opportunity to snap up bluechip stocks at bargain basement prices if they have the guts and the gumption to ride a gravy train that has gone crazily out of control.

On Monday, the sensex tumbled way below 8000 for the first time in three years and some investors had the opportunity to scoop up Reliance Industries at Rs 930 — a new 52-week low for the stock.

But there were other counters also where deals were a steal: cigarette and hotels major ITC fell to a new year’s low of Rs 132.05 while HDFC sank to Rs 1,382 at one stage. Both clawed back as investors rushed to grab a slice of the action.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg: on the Bombay Stock Exchange today, there were more than 400 stocks that hit all-time lows. Many might be relatively unknown with very dicey prospects, but the long list includes the technology titans Wipro and TCS, Aditya Birla’s Hindalco, and the hospitality majors Indian Hotels and EIH.

“Don’t miss this great opportunity. The world will go on. Buy a piece of the future,” says Hitesh Agrawal, head of research at Angel Broking, which has put out a buy recommendation on Bajaj Auto, Maruti Udyog, Reliance Industries and TCS.

Some market analysts feel that investors should not lose sight of the fact that the Indian economy has a fundamental strength that cannot be wrecked by a recession in the US or the UK.

Some analysts are recommending stocks like Tata Steel (which hit a year’s low of Rs 150 on Monday) because they are cheap; others say investors must take a two-to-three-year perspective while buying.

Ambareesh Baliga, vice-president at Karvy Stock Broking, advises caution at the current juncture. He says investors who want to take risks can pick up frontline stocks in areas like power generation, capital goods, information technology, banking, fast- moving consumer goods and pharmaceuticals. He, however, adds that retail investors should not buy into the markets now.

“We don’t know where the bottom is and how much selling will take place. Let the markets stabilise first; that will happen when it rises by 10 to 15 per cent from current levels. That is the best time to enter,” Baliga says.

However, Arun Kejriwal, director at stockbroking firm KRIS, says investors should not step in even though valuations are cheap. He feels that they should buy stocks only after there are clear indications that the markets have bottomed out. “In the last leg, it is usually the sensex stocks that fall the hardest. Therefore, one should exercise caution.”