Expect some consolidation over the first quarter of 2024: Karthik Kumar

While we expect Nifty to give a 10-12% return over the next year, we also see volatility levels going up in the near term given uncertainties to global growth due to aggressive tightening by the US Fed. While the US Fed may not raise rates further, high-interest rates, withdrawal of liquidity by the US Fed and uncertainties over global growth will have an adverse impact on FPI flows.

Kotak AMC's CIO Equity, Harsha Upadhyaya, highlights the growth potential of banking, industrials, autos, and cement sectors in the Indian economy. Banking is set to have significantly higher earnings growth over the next two years as compared to the broader market. However, Upadhyaya does not see the auto sector continuing its rally due to lower-than-expected volume growth. Instead, the growing demand in the capital goods industrial segment, driven by overall investments from the public and private sector, may be a preferred area of opportunity to outperform the market.

In an interview, Kotak Institutional Equities’ CEO and co-head Pratik Gupta said the market will continue to consolidate around the current levels for the next few months and there is no major catalyst for a sharp rally or a sustained correction.

The Hindu accounting year began with an upgrade from global brokerage Goldman Sachs which said India is expected to see “the best structural growth prospects in the region” with mid-teens earnings growth over the next two years.

Banks' Q1 profits face headwinds: Emkay Global predicts a sluggish 4% growth in pre-provisioning operating profits for the June quarter. This slowdown, affecting private lenders most, is attributed to shrinking margins and rising operational costs.

Pankaj Tibrewal of IKIGAI Asset Manager discusses market trends, emphasizing trust, performance, and purpose. He advises on investment opportunities in pharma, chemicals, and private banks while cautioning against risky stocks and advocating selective stock picking. He also says: We believe that the recent correction is very small compared to the larger returns in the past one year.

The numbers beat market expectations; however, the benchmark Sensex at the BSE fell 193 points or 0.3% on Thursday.

After a very short phase of a correction, several PSU bank stocks were the top gainers in Tuesday's trading session. Today on Wednesday they are trading with minor cuts and some of them have seen intraday recovery. This is worth noting for two reasons. First, all PSU banks are sitting with a decent amount of gains for the last five months, and even then they have not witnessed a sharp decline. Second, on Tuesday, the breadth of the market was weak. Suddenly PSU turns into an outperforming set of stocks. It signals a couple of things. First, because the banking sector is probably the best proxy play to the Indian economy. It appears the view on the street is positive on economic growth. Second, rather than taking exposure to an individual sector, taking exposure to PSU banks which are still among the lot that are available at relatively cheaper valuations is a trade on the street. But should one ignore the private banks? Probably not. They have their trajectory and just because they have not performed on the street it does not mean their core business model has some issues.. It's just another phase that shall pass.

The Indian economy has demonstrated strong resilience, exceeding expectations by achieving a 7.6% year-on-year growth in real terms for the July-September quarter of FY2024, following a 7.8% expansion in the first quarter. Notably, this growth is notable given the challenging global environment.

“It is very difficult to say that whether it is a midcap or sentimentally by numbers it might look like a largecap but within the domestic consumption space, organised retail is a very good space where we have a decent allocation and organised retail shows no impact of what is happening outside India.”