Global markets to bottom out: Subodh Kumar

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Subodh Kumar:

Q:  Do you think the strength across Asia can be maintained?

A: I am looking for the global markets to be bottoming out in this quarter and I think we are making good progress in that regard. One issue that I did have with the Asian recovery recently is that like in the US, some of it seems to be derived from the view that the US consumer is ready to move upwards and I would look for leadership elsewhere, so I think the markets will bottom out.

I don’t think that the leadership is going to be consumer driven. There has been a lot of news as well of importance from the IMF growth outlook coming up, the pre-liquefaction of balance sheets of financials which is good and so on, so a lot of news here.

Q: Shifting focus to Japan, do you see confidence bolstered in carry trade especially in view of the fact that the Yen has fallen about 85 bps points against the dollar and also against the Euro?

A: Quite frankly, carry trade kind of activities are last year’s story because what’s going to be taking place now, is that the markets have basically shifted to fundamentals where the activities into the last year tended to be more of a trading nature. I think if any activity takes place with respect to Japan will be related to how people perceive things like World trade. I don’t think there will be a straight Yen-Dollar trade.

Q: Any sector specific preferences in Asia?

A: I am suspicious about consumer discretionary but I think that any early leadership in the markets will have to come from the financials but also is likely to come from industrial companies and from Information Technology because these are all leveraged to infrastructure.