India underweight stance pays off for ace investor Shankar Sharma

Returns can be made by asset allocation and not stockpicking, he says

His India portfolio is not exactly in the pink of health, but veteran investor Shankar Sharma is exuberant as he takes the podium at the Morningstar Investment Conference in Mumbai.

That’s not surprising, considering his global portfolio is up 70 per cent this year. He owes this to the strategy of diversifying across countries and asset classes. His firm First Global, a global securities house, scouts for opportunities in developed economies such as the US and the UK as well as emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia.

While not exactly a doomsday advocate, Sharma has been perceived as a