10% correction post-100% return healthy; sub-13600 Nifty would worry: Atul Suri

Veteran trader-investor Atul Suri is not too perturbed by the ongoing correction in the market. From the lows of March 2020, the market has delivered 100 percent returns, he reminded viewers.

“After a 100 percent move over a year, if we see 10-12 percent kind of correction, it is good, healthy,” Suri, CEO, Marathon Trends said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

The pre-Budget low is a key level that Suri has an eye out for. The Nifty had crashed to a low of 13596 on January 29.

“It won’t bother me if we do not violate the pre-budget lows. In case, in spite of such a path-breaking budget, if we revisit those places or go below that, that is when I would be worried,” he added.

According to him, stocks that fall less in falling markets are leaders of the next bull market.

In terms of banking, he said, “Banking has not been an outperformer. Banking is an integral part, the market cannot move without banking but I personally am not so bullish or find a reason to be overweight in my portfolio on banking.”

Suri believes, one has to look at the global metal formations to take a call on stocks like Tata Steel.

“From my understanding, yes they have moved up higher and they are correcting but I feel that there is a larger turnaround that is happening. The whole commodity index or the whole commodity space globally has surprised people. I see there is lot more upside that is happening. Tata Steel or any other metal stocks are very interesting opportunities,” he pointed out.

He is grossly overweight on specialty chemicals. “We are using this correction to accumulate and get into specialty chemicals. Specialty chemicals is something that we will consolidate our current position,” he said.

“The other area which we are seeing going up is the home improvement area. We feel that a lot of these stocks are showing very impressive quarterly numbers, very good turnaround and also the price behaviour that we are focusing or the patterns that we look for in markets are very visible. So we will consolidate in specialty chemicals and we will be adding home improvement related stocks to our portfolio,” he stated.

On diagnostic companies, he said, “It is a fantastic space. If you look at healthcare in India, it is at a very nascent stage and rather than betting on ABC, XYZ, diagnostics is very central. The whole thing is pretty well captured by a few of these diagnostic companies. This is an area which is very interesting. On a five-year basis, healthcare is an area which one would like to be in.”