India's growth will be resilient in event of a global downturn, says Paul Kitney of Daiwa Capital Markets

India's growth will be resilient in a global economic downturn, which is expected to be significant, particularly in 2020, said Paul Kitney, chief equity strategist, Daiwa Capital Markets.

“We have had a big overweight in India for many months now and we have been positive on India for several quarters now. Indian growth should be quite resilient in an economic downturn, which we foresee and quite a significant one, particularly in 2020," he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Speaking about US-Iran situation and its impact on crude, he said, “The fact that we have not seen much in a way of a shift-up in energy prices given there has been a particular level of brinkmanship in Iran tells us that the underlying demand/supply conditions in the oil market are quite weak. So, we look at it from a supply perspective globally and in the US we see that the oil market is quite well supplied. This is somewhat different than it was around six-seven months ago.”

In terms of his top bets in India, he added, “We like the banks, Axis Bank in particular, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) in the industrials, we like some of the consumer names.”

On G-20 meeting, he further mentioned, “I am not expecting much at all. I suspect we might get some form of headline on the positive direction towards some sort of MoU between China and US and that might get some particular markets excited.”