He added that external factors remain an important overhang. “The other key point that markets are really focusing on is what happens with the rupee and what happens with the US-India trade deal, and the two are closely linked.” Until clarity emerges on these fronts, he expects markets to remain tight. “If these come in, you should hopefully be entering the next phase of the bull move in the market,” Anand said.
In terms of profit figures, Anand says digital platforms continue to differentiate themselves. “Digital and digital platforms remain very robust first and foremost in terms of earnings growth. I think that’s something that should remain very robust.” He sees room for recovery in lending within the traditional sectors. “You’ve had a fair amount of NIM pressure, especially for the banks, as well as asset quality issues. Both clearly seem to be close to bottoming out,” he said, referring to pressure on net interest margins and asset quality concerns at banks.
Consumption is another area he is optimistic about, supported by policy support. “You’ve had a number of things that are all good for consumer demand, starting with income tax cuts… VAT cuts… a very significant drop in interest rates… a pretty decent monsoon.” While autos have led the recovery, he expects broader consumption to pick up later. “It’s really the fourth quarter and the year after that is the general recovery in other segments of consumption, excluding autos… You’ll probably see this.”
Anand reiterated his long-term belief about internet companies, saying: “We believe this decade will be about this specific theme.” He acknowledged short-term headwinds in the fast-paced trade but maintained a long-term view. “These companies are not bets for this quarter or this year. These are bets in terms of what these companies are going to develop over the next five to seven years.” “We see that many of these companies have already achieved significant levels of scale. Meesho has become the second largest e-commerce platform in terms of volumes in less than five years. We have seen how Groww has grown. We have seen Zomato, Swiggy, etc. These companies are growing incredibly fast. They are already very big in terms of their size.” respective market shares, and the relative magnitude of growth outperforming traditional businesses, will only continue in the future,” said Ashi Anand.
On competition including Zepto, he said: “Most people in the market, including us, believe that high-speed trading will be dominated by these three players in the longer term and actually all three are very interesting.”
Looking ahead, Anand summarized the bigger picture: “As you go into FY27, not only do you have the entire banking sector with quite strong earnings growth prospects, with consumption hopefully returning, but if capital formation trends there also turn positive, then the overall market earnings growth trajectory in FY27 could look quite interesting.”
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions expressed by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
#time #markets #limited #bandwidth #wait #earnings #macro #signals #bull #run #Ashi #Anand