Saibal Ghosh, chief investment officer, Aegon Religare Life Insurance, tells Puneet Wadhwa that the huge ‘trust premium’ paid by foreign investors for banking stocks has evaporated after the series of scams last month. Edited excerpts:
The markets have seen a lot of unwinding in the past few sessions. For how long will this continue? What is your near-to-medium term outlook for the Nifty?
It is difficult to give a time frame. However, there has been huge stock-specific volatility in the last one month. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have started booking profits in select stocks, especially where they were largely overweight. The huge ‘trust premium’ paid by FIIs for banking stocks is evaporating now, after the series of scams last month.
However, we see this as a temporary phenomenon and believe a road block like this does not signify the end.
In the Indian context, the gross domestic product (GDP) numbers are robust. IIP numbers are also strong, while the HSBC PMI numbers are rising. Other lead indicators like auto sales, electricity consumptions and port movements are also indicating a positive trend.
How have you churned your portfolio in the past few months? Which sectors got included and which ones went out of flavour?
We do not churn our portfolio quite often, as our mandate is long-term, fundamental-driven investments. We have been overweight in consumer and financial sectors. We have also started taking some exposure in select metal stocks.