ADVERTISEMENT

India’s Experienced Investors Are Hitting Pause Amid Pandemic: Abakkus’ Sunil Singhania

Sunil Singhania explains why the rising markets despite a weak economy are only logical.

A traffic light signals yellow in the Colaba area during a lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus in Mumbai, on April 5, 2020. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
A traffic light signals yellow in the Colaba area during a lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus in Mumbai, on April 5, 2020. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

India’s experienced investors are hitting ‘pause’ as the corporates are yet to face the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Abakkus Asset Manager's Sunil Singhania.

The companies are yet to see the worst, the founder of the investment management company told BloombergQuint in an interview. “The easy money has been made, now let us see which companies' P&Ls are impacted to what levels.” The investors, Singhania said, should wait for another two-three months before making sizable investments.

Some numbers of the April-June quarter might scare investors and it is very logical that the market is moving this way and the short ‘W’ wave will continue at least till the end of August.
Sunil Singhania, Founder, Abakkus Asset Manager

The equities across the world had witnessed the worst plunge in more than a decade after the novel coronavirus outbreak upended economies and stalled businesses. While the domestic benchmarks recovered most of their losses after the government and the Reserve Bank of India announced stimulus and the nation gradually eased lockdown curbs, mounting cases of infections are still a concern.

Singhania, however, dismissed those concerns, saying the rebound in market is due to incremental optimism.

“In March we wrote off everything. Now even the slightest positive, an HCQ coming or some study starting, is giving us hope that a cure will come soon," he said. "Mankind is all about optimism and a better tomorrow. That is what we are seeing.”

The equity markets mimic the underlying economy over the long term, Singhania said. In the short to medium term, however, the markets are either ahead or behind the economic state, depending on investor perception and sentiment.

“Sometimes the market takes into account a lot of these factors which might not be completely linear as far as the economy and corporate profitability goes,” he said.

Watch the full conversation with Sunil Singhania, here...