Nifty meltdown: Market gurus see India swaying to global beat

Moneycontrol Bureau

Benchmark indices on Thursday fell the steepest in nearly three months as a lethal cocktail of global markets meltdown and the F&O expiry sent bulls running for cover.

The slide was triggered by Bank of Japan keeping benchmark interest rates unchanged and lowering GDP growth forecasts for this year and the next.

A snapshot of what leading money managers expect of the market in the near term:

India should continue to benefit from the ongoing reform agenda. It still has very attractive characteristics and unlike many of the other Asian countries the levels of household leverage is quite low. The problem is that valuations are expensive. Upside is minimal, if at all, at current levels.

Jonathan Garner, Morgan Stanley

If there is increased volatility in the EMs because of whatever any of the Central Banks might be doing and the EM basket were to fall or move up, I think India would do that as well. There is nothing in the near-term that suggests that India will decouple in itself.

Sanjay Mookim, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

I think a lot of the rally that we got both in absolute and relative terms was just more from the reduction of panic. Where do we go from here is going to depend on are the fundamentals now justifying what the markets have done and that is going to get down to earnings

Sunil Garg, JP Morgan

On India we are still neutral overall. The Budget -- at the start of this year -- was taken very well. But we still are seeing some issues in India. We still think that earnings are in a cyclical trough. Reform measures, while they are still ongoing, they have not exactly panned out as well as expected.

Ian Hui, JP Morgan Asset Management

If there is a dip then I would see that as a buy in opportunity. Smaller (FII) inflows in April, but nevertheless, foreign investors are still looking to India as being one of the favoured destinations for emerging market equities in the second quarter.

Geoff Lewis, Manulife Asset ManagementIt gives us more confidence that yes, we are definitely passed the trough in earnings growth. If I look at a chart for the last few quarters, we are already passed the trough, so we are hovering towards zero or probably already above that March quarter

Hartmut Issel, UBS