Sunil Singhania's tip to have a happy Diwali on D-Street every year

The returns made last year are unreal and cannot be duplicated, Sunil Singhania, Founder of Abakkus Asset Management, said in conversation with CNBC-TV18. The remarks from the veteran fund manager come at a time when the market kicked off Samvat 2078 on a positive note, after the Nifty50 ended the period between Diwali 2020 and Diwali 2021 with a gain of 40 percent in a liquidity-driven run.

“I have been managing public money for almost over two decades and one thing is that with every bull run, the returns come and with returns, the expectations also go up. Having learnt the lessons in the last few years, we are very clear, with all our investors, that we continue to be very, very positive on the Indian market from a decade's perspective.”

Speaking on the phenomenal returns in the year gone by, Singhania advised investors to "have reasonable return expectations and we will have a Happy Diwali every year”.

Speaking on the retail investor who hasn’t seen a bear market, Singhania said, “This has been a very unique and one thing which actually gladdens my heart. For once Indian, retail investors have benefited out of this market. Otherwise, we were all only seeing the market move up and down and all the foreign institutional investors coming in and making money. To that extent, it is very heartening.”

He, however, cautioned first-time investors, advising them not to "get carried away". "We saw how the Squid Bitcoin has collapsed, almost zero... and there are stories of how people have lost money. I would sincerely urge retail investors to be a little bit more cognizant, and not play with the market but invest. I think that is very, very important,” Singhania said.

“I think the expectations are very high and that is one, I would say, cause of concern that we have,” he added.