Invest Only If You Can Sleep Well With Your Portfolio, Says Ajay Srivastava

Those who want to invest in the volatile equity markets need to do so at their own comfort level and make sure they can “sleep well with their portfolios”.

That’s according to Ajay Srivastava, managing director at Dimensions Corporate Finance Services, who said he has no advice to give to investors apart from “no need to buy any stock no matter the share price”.

Srivastava said India is taking the threat of the epidemic too lightly. “We may not realise it but on ground, if the (retail) markets are shut which growth are we talking about? There is no growth. We are in a de facto deep recession at this point of time,” he told BloombergQuint in an interview. “We are not factoring in what has happened at the retail end in India in the last 48-72 hours. India has shut itself just like the rest of the world.”

That comes at a time when a number of market veterans have encouraged investments in the stock market as the rout has led to attractive valuations for a number of quality names. Morgan Stanley’s Ridham Desai in an interview said while it was difficult to predict the market’s bottom, we are at a “handshake” distance to it.

As for investors who still want to put their cash to work, Srivastava said they need to make sure they are confident about their portfolios because it is impossible to say where the market is headed. “We’re too optimistic to look at the scenario and talk about economic revival when there is a bigger health risk sitting in this country.”

Watch | Ajay Srivastava Says Don’t Invest In Equity Till Retail Shops Re-Open