Chris Wood Jefferies

Stock Market Highlights: The Nifty moved in a narrow band of 100-odd points before settling marginally in red at 22,545. Bajaj twins and Shriram Finance gained, while UltraTech plunged 5% on Thursday.

Speaking at BS Manthan, Wood said he remains structurally bullish on Indian equities from a long-term perspective; but cautious in the short-term given the quantum of FII outflows and valuation woes.

Wood will speak on 'Developed vs Emerging: India's markets in a new world order' at the two day Business Standard Manthan in New Delhi

Countries that have free trade agreements with the US, such as Singapore and South Korea, are safer with respect to Trump's reciprocal tariff threat, analysts at Nomura said.

As an investment strategy, Wood has taken exposure in the US-listed online travel company MakeMyTrip in the India long-only portfolio with a 4 per cent weighting

Bitcoin, meanwhile, has gained 164 per cent in the last one year - from a level of around $37,000 to nearly $98,300 now. This is despite the cryptocurrency halving in April 2024.

There is growing evidence of liquidity tightening in the US, Wood said, which raises a near-term risk to equities

A deterioration in the geopolitical situation is the biggest risk to global equity markets, Wood said, which he believes is not yet fully discounted by them

In the past two trading sessions, Go Digit's stock increased up to 3 per cent. Including today's gain, it reached an intraday high of Rs 370 on Monday.

Indian stock market is much more resilient in the face of a US downturn and related Wall Street sell-off than the likes of Japan, Wood said

In dollar terms, gold prices hit $2,331/oz at the end of H1-CY24, according to WGC data, rising 12.1 per cent during this period

Back home, the midcap segment, Wood said, remains vulnerable to a correction. He believes there will also be a temptation for investors to tilt the portfolio more towards consumption plays

Here's how leading foreign and domestic brokerages have interpreted the Lok Sabha 2024 election-related developments thus far, their poll outcome scenarios and market strategy

That said, the reality so far Wood believes, a repeat of the shock BJP defeat in 2004, remains unlikely in the extreme.

Calendar year 2024 (CY24) will be a good year for 'quality stocks and bonds', according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. Stocks, they said, have priced in a 'perfect landing' scenario

Chris Wood has hiked exposure to the dragon nation in his Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative-return portfolio by two-and-a-half percentage points to maintain a 'Neutral' weighting

In its recent GREED & fear note Wood said, in the base case, it expects the Russia-Ukraine conflict to continue in the months leading US presidential election in November.

China's official gold reserves, Wood said, have increased by 314 tonnes, or 16.1 per cent, from 1,948 tonnes at the end of October 2022 to 2,262 tonnes at the end of March 2024

This, he wrote in his weekly note, GREED & fear, will be paid for by reducing the existing investments in Bajaj Finance, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and Reliance Industries (RIL)

As many as 497, or half of 1050 stocks, from the midcap and smallcap index have outperformed the all benchmark indices and appreciated over 35 per cent during Samvat 2079