It's been a lackluster year for Indian stocks, with the Sensex set to end the year with losses of near 8-10 per cent since the start of 2015.

Every sector has seen losses, including the likes of banking, pharma and IT. Apart from select stocks like Maruti and HUL, many have underperformed, including bigwigs like ITC, TCS, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank among others.

Oil exploration and metal stocks like ONGC, Cairn India, NMDC, Hindalco and Vedanta have been the hardest hit. There is virtually no place to hide for Indian investors.

Here are a list of best shares to buy in India for 2016:

1) ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank is trading at a p/e multiple of just 10 times one year forward earnings. This is very low for one of the country's largest private sector banks. Its holding in subsidiaries in the health insurance, life insurance and broking firm itself offers tremendous value.

The stock has been badly hit on account of rising NPAs and a slow economic recovery.

However, there is reason to believe that economic turnaround is just round the corner. Banking stocks would be an excellent proxy for a fast turnaround in the economy. NPA worries may hence ease and credit off take maybe better in the coming days.

The stock can easily hit Rs 300 in 2016, giving gains of almost 20 per cent from current levels. In fact, the share price in 2015 had hit a 52-week high of as much as Rs 380. It is trading significantly lower at Rs 256 today. A great share to buy for 2016.

2) NMDC

It's always a great risk to suggest buying into beaten down shares from the metal and commodity space. However, we believe that commodity prices are unlikely to dip too much from the current levels. This is one reason to be buying a stock like NMDC, which is an iron ore producer. Iron ore prices have fallen sharply in 2015, which led to a sharp fall in the share price of NMDC from 148 to the current levels.

NMDC is a cash rich, zero debt company. The dividend yield on the stock itself is near 9-10 per cent. The company has aggressive plans of expansion into steel and other allied activities. One can easily see the stock rallying from the current levels in the days to come.

3) Oil India

Oil India is an excellent play on crude oil. Again, like NMDC, the Oil India stock has fallen from levels of Rs 576 to the current levels of Rs 372. Crude prices have slumped to $35. We believe that crude oil prices is unlikely to fall any further. If crude prices rally from here, Oil India shares could rally. The company declares a dividend of almost Rs 21 per share, which takes the dividend yield on the stock to near 5 per cent.

We believe that the other best shares to buy in 2016 would be similar stocks from the oil and gas space including the likes of ONGC and Cairn India.

GoodReturns.in