CIOs favour equities in 2026, but gold remains in the mix

Moneycontrol's Mutual Fund Summit 2026

• Experts favor equities for 2026; gold strong short-term
• Equities forecast modest gains despite global uncertainties
• Gold may outperform equities in 2024 due to global imbalances

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At the Moneycontrol Mutual Fund Summit, held in Ahmedabad, on Tuesday, Ashish Gupta of Axis Mutual Fund, Trideep Bhattacharya of Edelweiss Asset Management, and Rishi Kohli of JioBlackRock MF all pointed to equities as their preferred play for 2026, while Chirag Mehta of Quantum AMC argued gold could outperform in the near term.

Ashish Gupta, CIO at Axis Mutual Fund, said last year’s equity performance was better than perceived. “I’ll actually say that last year for the equities was not really too bad,” he said, pointing out that the Nifty delivered about 10% returns in rupee terms. “Given where we were, given the magnitude of gains that had come in the previous few years, I don't think it was a bad outcome at all. I think we have to keep resetting our expectations.”

Gupta cautioned that in a lower inflation and lower nominal GDP environment, investors cannot expect 15–20% annual returns from equities. “If your expectations are reasonable, then it should still be a reasonable year for equities,” he said, adding that some earlier challenges such as high valuations have eased as earnings stabilised. However, he flagged global uncertainties, uneven capital flows and a large IPO pipeline as factors that could keep gains modest. “It will be a year of modest gain,” he said.

Trideep Bhattacharya, President and CIO at Edelweiss Asset Management, also favours equities over the medium term, particularly in an inflationary world. “If you are in an inflationary world, then the best asset class to own, over the medium term that can beat inflation, is equities,” he said.

Rishi Kohli, CIO at JioBlackRock Mutual Fund, described equity as “very interesting for the coming year to two years.” He attributed the market halt since October 2024 to valuation excesses and earnings disappointments, but said a few quarters of sustained earnings performance could revive sentiment. “Two or three quarters of sustained performance on the earnings side is required typically before sentiment really comes back with a bang,” he said.

Kohli added that signs of a pickup in corporate capex could support markets over the next 18–24 months. Even during recent dull phases, he said, “there were a lot of sector rotation happening… when healthy sector rotation is happening, even if markets are dull, it is a sign of an underlying healthy bull market in the long run.”

In contrast, Chirag Mehta, CIO at Quantum AMC, expects gold to outperform equities this year. While he acknowledged improving earnings momentum and policy support, he said structural imbalances in developed markets have been driving gold higher. “It’s very, very structural imbalances we are seeing in developed world… which is leading to piling of deficits and that is where gold is going up,” he said.

“There is a case for diversification of reserves and investments into assets like gold, which we think will continue,” Mehta added. From a headline index perspective, “gold could do well… I think gold would probably surpass equity in terms of its return this year,” though he expects equities to potentially do better in the following year.