From 8k to 17k: Ramesh Damani on lows, rally, road ahead

Excerpts from Your World at 10 on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Experts see Nifty at 5300 levels, differ on timing ALSO READ See what other experts are saying about markets See what FIIs are saying about the markets See what Udayan Mukherjee is saying about the markets Nifty BSE | NSE 30/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Q: You sound very bullish. Is there nothing that you worry about? Where would you think that this market would be March, 2011?

A: Peter Lynch said if you want to spend 10 minutes on a conversation you spend 10 seconds on predicting where the market is going. Nobody knows. I am not that smart enough, but my sense is the undertone is buoyant in India, stocks are looking good, corporate outlook is good, managements are talking about expansion, they are not talking of degrowth. So it's a good time to remain invested.

Bull markets will have corrections, it may start tomorrow, may start next week. You just have to ride the pain. Look at the broader picture, a country that's changed in about 10-15 years time. It's like investing in America in the 1950s, you want to hold on despite wars, Korean War, Vietnam War, Watergatel, any number or events that took place in America. The people who won were the people who held on to the Johnson & Johnsons and IBMs. So may be we are in a similar trajectory in history. It seems to me that the risk reward still favour the buyer.

Q: Do you think this bullishness has crept down the retail investor level as well?

A: Not entirely. I think they have become more of traders, in and out of market everyone wants to sell out on Friday in case something happens over the weekend. I think in that opinion I have a strong opinion about this is what the government should do, the government should have a full fledge policy to disinvest public sector undertakings (PSU) investors among retail investors.

They should hire some from the telecom guys who took penetration rates of telecom from 1 per 100 to 50 per 100 and say I want to get Indian public excited about PSU stocks, there are some great companies, I am going to offer them some great valuations. If they do that the whole equity cult around this country and that's what the government can do. It's essentially taking taxpayer money, building these assets and now returning it back to the taxpayer in terms of stock certificates. If I think they do that we will see huge retail surge in India.