Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Markets face a turbulent weather, what to do next?

Dear Reader,

The Panorama newsletter is sent to Moneycontrol Pro subscribers on market days. It offers easy access to stories published on Moneycontrol Pro and gives a little extra by setting out a context or an event or trend that investors should keep track of.

Forget a Santa Claus rally, stocks are heading fast in the other direction. On Monday morning, Asian markets opened in a sea of red. At the time of writing, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong are all trading down 2 percent each.

Indian markets have suffered more. The Sensex is down 3 percent. Both the Indian benchmark indices have shed at least 10 percent from their all-time highs.

The reasons are all too familiar: the accelerating Omicron wave across Europe is prompting countries to go into lockdown; most vaccines, including the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot (Covishield), are apparently useless against this new strain; the fresh lockdowns are expected to disrupt supplies and raise inflation; central banks are turning hawkish, with some such as the Bank of England already raising rates.

The general pessimism has gripped oil markets as well and big institutional investors are fleeing into safe havens.

What should the small investor do? Book profits while the going is good or just brace till this ends?

Our research team has taken a deep look into this issue and advises investors to take up arms against this sea of troubles – a.k.a. buy on dips.

“While it is prudent to brace for some more short-term weakness, the key question is whether investors should run away amid the softness or invest more amid correction. We would unequivocally recommend that investors should use this opportunity to buy on decline and the reasons are not hard to find,” says its strategy note today. Read on for the rationale.

Other investing insights from our research team

Soft patch a good opportunity to bet on battery makers

Mrs Bectors Food Specialities: Well poised to outperform industry

What else are we reading today?

Will the March quarter rescue flagging margins of cement companies?

The Eastern Window | Why Xi Jinping is going all out to woo foreign talent, technology

Start-up Street: Indian ed-tech firms capitalise on the loss of Chinese peers

Electronic chip manufacturing: Is India ready?

Data Protection: Overregulation could kill the entrepreneurial spirit of Digital India

Retail investors riding the bull market could spur a populist backlash (republished from the FT)

Captain-BJP alliance is high on optics, low on substance, likely to face challenges

Technical Picks: Jubilant Foodworks, Gold Bees, Balkrishna Industries and Power Grid Corporation  (These are published every trading day before markets open)

Ravi Krishnan

Moneycontrol Pro