Vetri’s biggest worry today is vaulting investor expectations. Decadal growth opportunity for the economy does not mean unlimited wealth creation potential from markets, irrespective of when you enter. Valuations matter, cycles matter. Quest for instant gratification – and high levels of gratification at that, can cause significant investor disappointment even as markets continue to move through cycles, as they always have, and always will.
Our market experts have to be careful not to extrapolate good news for markets to mean good news for Bharat. The two may not always go together.
Rapid sector rotation means that momentum analysis is becoming a relevant field of study and products are being designed to harness it. This does not however mean that all equity funds must embrace momentum as a key strategy. Factor based products will continue to sit alongside traditional bottom-up investing oriented products.
Vetri finds valuation and quality comfort in banks and is prepared to remain invested for a couple of quarters more for growth to accelerate. He likes large parts of the healthcare space, but is turning increasingly circumspect on several industrials and defence stocks which are too richly valued for his comfort.
While US economy has proved more resilient than expected, some signals of slowdown are beginning to emerge now. If US rate cut cycle commences on the back of more data coming in on weakness accelerating, that can’t be good news for US stocks and global equity sentiment. Start of a rate cut cycle in US does not necessarily mean good news for stocks – be careful what you wish for!