Investors happy with market correction: Raamdeo Agrawal

Lots of global conferences on India are lined up in the next few weeks. One just flagged off --The Bear Stearns-Motilal Oswal India Conference, where a lot of Indian companies were showcased with a large number of participants.

Speaking on the sentiment at the investor conference, Raamdeo Agrawal of Motilal Oswal Securities says that investors are confident about the recent earnings growth and concerned about the rising oil prices and interest rates. Additionally, he feels that investors were happy that the markets had corrected and would be happier if they corrected some more.

On appetite for Indian paper:

People are very excited about the recent earnings growth and they seem to be knowing it all. They know a lot more than what I saw last time. Obviously, they are very concerned about rising energy prices, concerned about interest rates. None of them were as concerned about infrastructure constraints as I thought they would be. They have taken for granted that the Indian growth story of 7-7.5, 8% is there. Hence, everybody is looking for the right opportune time to get in, but nobody seems to be concerned about the recent downfall in the markets. Infact, I found that quite a few of them were happy that the markets have corrected and will be happier if they corrected some more. 

On the level of investor participation:

I think the conference has been pretty good and unlike last time when the excitement was going through the roof about the markets, this time the conference is way more serious in terms of participation. The level of participation is much more deeper. Instead of analysts, we are seeing many more fund managers, almost 500 delegates have registered, corporates are also very excited and we have almost 1/3rd of the Indian market cap represented here. As far as the conference is concerned it's going very well.

On the Fed interest rate issue:

My sense is that these guys are not in a great hurry to pump money into India, most of their concerns are global in character, whether it is oil prices or high interest rates. Tomorrow Bernanke, there is the Fed meeting about the next round of interest rate rises, so it is all playing on their minds and if there is any kind of an upturn into emerging markets, if investing starts into emerging markets at that time, then India's going to get its share.

About sectors:

I saw a lot of people asking about the construction sector. Construction and infrastructure sector interest was quite high and of course IT was the top favourite with all the companies participating; Infosys, TCS, Accenture, all of them were being chased. Even cellular company like Bharti Airtel were very popular. Typical growth companies out of India have been very popular and my sense is that everyone is trying to figure out how to value the companies and they should be into the market before the next bull run starts.

On India as an emerging market and investment plans:

I have no doubts that India is very popular, except that right now because of global concerns, investing into emerging markets is not that popular and hence allocations are slow, but whenever it revives, then I'm sure India will get full blast money and we will not be surprised if there is a revival of emerging market investing, then India's going to be rising pretty fast.

One of the things I noticed was that most of the guys are making long term plans for investing in India, in terms of setting up offices or recruiting analysts or having business plans that are not looking like next quarter or next year, but they are going to stay in India and hence India is now permanently in their scheme of things and actually the plans are much more grand and long lasting rather than just getting in, making some money and getting out. So, I think investing in India is going to be a far more seroius affair than most of us here realise.