Not geopolitical tension, worried more about higher for longer rates: Sampath Reddy

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance's Sampath Reddy, prefers value-oriented stocks over growth and expects the market valuation to peak between 19 to 20 times PE in the coming year. Although the market valuations are slightly high, the Indian macro economy is performing well in terms of GDP growth and benign inflation, driving higher valuations. Reddy notes the shift from growth to value-oriented, higher-interest rate-sensitive utility sectors and believes it will continue.

At a time when it is not possible to find stocks that can be called “fairly valued” and forget “undervalued”, but the sentiment continues to be bullish, it is tough for retail investors to control their desire to buy stocks. The fact is that this market has been in an overvalued zone for quite some time, but as they say, liquidity and sentiment can ensure that market remains in that zone for longer than anyone expects. So, for investors, it would be wise to take exposure to stocks, where a sector the overall market size is very big or the sector has reached an inflection point where the market size will grow or they have an income stream that has an element of annuity. The reason why this strategy works is that even if the valuations are expensive at the time of buying stocks, steady growth in the industry helps in normalizing the valuations of individual stocks.

U.S. annual inflation slowed considerably in June, likely pushing the Federal Reserve closer to ending its fastest interest rate hiking cycle since the 1980s

Real estate stakeholders in Mumbai express optimism due to a resilient Indian economy and sustained domestic demand. Residential and commercial office sector deals have seen positive growth, indicating a favorable outlook for the real estate industry.

A critical engine of growth and employment, with both forward and backward linkages, it is estimated that nearly 50% of India's GDP is linked with the domestic real estate sector.

“If you look at the 20-day moving average, it has been a great card for that accelerated trend in the midcap index. By mid September, we started to test that 20-day moving average again. Two weeks ago, we broke below it and now we are seeing some choppy volatility around it.”

Investors should be selective while participating in the market as some sectors are overvalued. However, many sectors and stocks are showing growth after years of stagnation and are available at reasonably good valuations, making it a good time to invest. The staple and chemical sectors are showing some signs of overvaluation, as are some pockets of the tech sector. In contrast, the utility sector looks interesting due to lack of investment in renewables or power in the last few years.

Financial sectors stocks tend to do well, where there is inflow from foreign portfolio investors, the reason, it is their preferred sector for taking exposure to the Indian market for decades as it can also act as a proxy for GDP growth. After a gap of two months, September and October, FPI have been net buyers in the month of November and till date in December. Given the fact that in the last one year there has been a sort of underperformance by financials stocks, there is high probability that we might see some of them making a come back, we take a look at stocks from this sector where one of one of valuation matrix meets the criteria for investing for long term.

Capital Mind's Deepak Shenoy says now is a good time to invest in stocks despite some unexpected bad numbers from some companies. He sees significant growth in sectors such as chemicals, railways, defence and infrastructure, and despite scepticism about a rally in midcap and smallcap pricing, he is investing more. He sees Reliance Industries as a sum of the parts valuation.

Gaurav Dua said autos and financials have come out of a multi-year downturn and the upcycle is likely to last for the next couple of years. He said one should accumulate auto and financial stocks in a staggered manner.