Budget 2021: Will use 'unsavoury' opportunities to deploy cash in hand, says Atul Suri

All eyes are on Budget 2021, given the ongoing pandemic that has adversely affected the economy, while the market reaching record highs could create opportunities for investors. CNBCTV-18 caught up with Atul Suri, CEO of Marathon Trends PMS, to find out the opportunities that lay ahead.

His first thoughts were, "The biggest fear for me in my portfolio is about Budget 2021. I fear that there could be some unsavoury things in the Budget for the industry and that may lead to volatility and correction. I would use that opportunity to deploy whatever cash I am sitting on, because I personally think that from a longer timeframe, it is a great opportunity because there is a thematic shift happening to EMs ."

Suri seemed optimistic on the long-term and explained the reason saying, "…because there have been decadal moves happening in global markets which are not going to end so soon."

On the Sensex achieving a new high of 50,000 points, he said, "50,000 is just a number, but the more important thing is that last year has been an absolutely surprising year. Markets still shows that they are the boss."

According to him, this could be the start of a thematic move towards emerging markets globally. "If you look at the markets on a longer-time horizon, they haven't done much. Short-term corrections will come but if you are looking at allocations into equities and you are worried about the markets having run-up, I think it is going to be misplaced when you look at markets three-five years from now, because they are going to be substantially higher," he said.

The breadth of the market is quite encouraging, he added. In terms of the megatrends, he said, "I feel that technology globally is the biggest megatrend, consumption is very big play, pharmaceuticals post-COVID is going to be a very different sector and specialty chemicals – a very narrow theme – niche sector but is going to be the big play that is going to happen. These are the four areas which we feel we are invested in for a longer-term and over a period of time these are going to be the megatrends."