Market unlikely to collapse now; upside looks open: Raamdeo Agrawal

Ashutosh Tiwari, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Equities at Equirus believes Budget 2024 may be balanced. It may be growth-oriented and also include populist measures with a focus on rural and lower strata of society.

“A broad-based rally in largecaps – not market cap broad-based, but sectorally broad-based within the largecap space – would be the best strategy for investors to adopt. If they want to go beyond largecap funds, then flexi-cap funds represent a good option because they normally have 15-20% or maybe up to 30% in the broader market.”

The drop broke the sustained positive growth trajectory that was seen in the domestic job market since October, showed the data. The month closed with an active jobs count of 270,000 compared with 300,000 in February. March's active jobs count is also 13% lower than a year ago.

Shashank Srivastava predicts a growth of 8.2% in the Indian auto market this year. Maruti Suzuki aims to improve its market share in the SUV segment to reach 50%. Discount levels have decreased, and the future growth of the auto company depends on retail movement due to high inventory levels.

Dipan Mehta says the absence of froth and lower risks in the market indicate positive sentiment. The percentage of professionals managing the money compared to just raw retail coming to the market is significantly higher at this time around in this bull market than ever before. Union Bank's sensible strategy to improve capital and drive growth is praised while auto sector may see a slowdown.

​So, regardless of what happened in the past month when people got a little worried about the impact on mid and smallcap due to some notification by the industry body or by a certain other notifications, I guess on average you have a decent medium term time horizon. Things are looking fine to us, we have enough ample opportunities to invest and we are looking for ideas all across.

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.

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.

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.

Deepak Jasani, Sr VP - Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities, suggests buying on dips and taking profits on rises as a good strategy in the current market. He explains that liquidity infusion post the Covid pandemic is still seeking returns, making India an attractive market. Jasani advises focusing on sectors like PSU, realty, power, BFSI, IT, and capital goods. He also discusses the potential of HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries, as well as the choice between direct and indirect investments in the real estate sector.