Supply chain re-alignments driven by geo-political considerations is creating a once in 30 year opportunity for India to become a manufacturing hub for the world. India is emerging as the largest pool of labour – for low skilled as well as high skilled workers. The new HDFC Manufacturing Fund intends harnessing this generational opportunity to invest in India’s manufacturing renaissance.
If manufacturing stocks do go into near term consolidation as some experts suggest, Rakesh believes it will give him good opportunities to buy at reasonable valuations in his new fund. He advises investors to look at this fund as a long term opportunity and not a tactical short term one.
Rakesh believes that strong earnings growth momentum can justify current valuations in several manufacturing stocks, even if valuations look stretched from historical standards. Key is to identify stocks with strong quality and long runway of earnings.
Auto components and select healthcare stocks look particularly interest to Rakesh. He plans to have an active bet size of 30-40% of the portfolio.
Continued focus and acceleration in policy making driving Atmanirbhar Bharat spell a huge opportunity for manufacturing businesses, which is creating a decadal investment opportunity in manufacturing.