India to do reasonably well compared to most global peers, says Kenneth Andrade

India will continue to do reasonably well compared to most of its global peers, said Kenneth Andrade, founder and CEO of Old Bridge Capital Management, adding that 2018 has been the first year in five years.

On Tuesday, the Indian equity market started on a tepid note, reversing gains from a day earlier, tracking weak global cues as fears of slowdown hit investor sentiments. The market remained cautious ahead of the outcome of the two-day US Federal Reserve meet on Wednesday.

“Markets are going to respond according to what is going to happen on the earnings numbers and what is going to happen on the macro-environment and we are putting 2018 behind which has been probably one of the worst years in the last four-five years that we have been around. While saying that, these global concerns still exist and what is happening in India at this point in time going into the elections - while we have a macro problem – your balance sheets are completely cleaned up. So my sense is earnings is not a concern anymore. If you look at the asset side of company’s balance sheet which is companies which are manufacturing, infrastructure, IT, pharma etc and non-banking, profitability growth is almost 22-25 percent across the board and that is consolidated. So that is not a question mark even going into 2019 and 2020. If that is going to be the case in point, I think the derating that capital markets have had in 2018, it is done,” he said.

“From the start of the year till now, the activity on the ground is phenomenally high. I think we saw very similar activity happen close to somewhere in the last decade. After that it completely vanished away. A lot of this is coming from government spending. So my sense is that it is going to be first infrastructure and then it is going to be capital goods and manufacturing. I think that is where all the buoyancy is. To call it a revival of the capex cycle, I still think you need to give it a year or a year and a half because a lot of industries have still got surplus capacities on the ground,” he added.