India's long-term growth trajectory has become clear post-pandemic, and looks especially attractive compared with the rest of the world, said Mixo Das of JPMorgan in an interview to CNBC-TV18. Das said India is in the middle of a multi-year bull market from a macroeconomic perspective.
But from a retail participation perspective, "we are probably closer to the end of very aggressive participation", he added.
The remarks from the equity strategist come at a time when Indian equity benchmarks have once again paused within five percent of their all-time highs and many on Dalal Street have flagged expensive valuations.
Many experts are betting big on resilience of the Indian economy and earnings growth, making the market one of the choicest places to be for foreign investors.
A pickup in the country's property market, which has been stable over the past 10 years, is going to cause pressure in equities, he said. The Indian market has been closely following the trend in S&P 500 in line with other emerging markets, he said.
"Since early August or mid-August, we have started to see that kind of diverge, but India has held up much better than the rest of the other markets, including the S&P (500). And typically, this sort of divergence wouldn't tend to last so I would expect some catch-up there," he added.
As of Wednesday, the
Sensex and the
Nifty50 stand about four percent from the lifetime highs touched in October 2021 — the month that saw the last of a series of unprecedented levels in a liquidity-driven rally that lasted 18-odd months.
The headline indices have managed to escape what many experts on the Street described as
one of the slowest bear markets of all time. Equity inflows by foreign institutional investors — which emerged net buyers of Indian shares for a calendar month for the first time in 10 months in August — have powered the recovery.
A stock or index is said to be in the bear zone once it retreats at least 20 percent from its recent peak.
"Keep in mind that excess liquidity in India in the domestic economy, which has been big support to the market, is starting to face some pressure because you are starting to see credit growth pick up while deposit growth is going up," said Das, who likes the financial, material and energy spaces.
The markets globally remained under pressure on Wednesday ahead of a widely-expected 75-bps hike in the key lending rate by the Fed later in the day.
