Baer Cap expects Sensex to move up to 17000-17500 in 2012

The first half of the year could be an encouraging time for equities, but the latter half will bear watching as some concerns still remain, says Alok Sama of Baer Capital Partners. He also sees a good year ahead for US markets, while in India the outcome of the state elections could have a bearing on the future course of reforms and market sentiment.

Below is an edited transcript of Sama's interview on CNBC-TV18. Also watch attached video. Q: What did you make of yesterday's break out in Asian equities -- is that sustainable? A: I think that we have been talking about this for the last month or so. We in our portfolio have taken the view that there would be a rally in risk assets in December, that didn't materialise, at least not until, the last few days of the year, certainly not to the extent we expected it to but we are encouraged by the return to risk appetite in the first few days of the year. This so-called Jan effect seems to be very much a reality in 2012. So I think what you are seeing is new year, fresh optimism, first 5 days we saw the S&P go up, that generally historically hovers well in terms of performance of US market, but more generally for risk appetite and there is so much liquidity out there, sentiment has been so overwhelmingly negative that there really is the potential for a playable rally cutting across risk assets and EM obviously bore the brunt of risk aversion last year and I think it