Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Tech sneezes, Indian market catches a cold

For the third day in a row, Indian markets are feeling the shivers from the Chinese government’s crackdown on technology companies. After the US markets fell overnight, markets in Asia were trading down mostly. Hong Kong, where a lot of Chinese tech companies are listed, was actually up 1 percent at noon after the bloodbath of the previous two days.

While Big Tech has been under the regulatory lens for quite some time across the world, the intense scrutiny from Chinese regulators has left investors searching for answers.

Our columnist Manas Chakravarty has argued that this is the sign of tensions between promoting capitalism and ensuring tight state control coming out in the open.

There are related questions such as whether the crackdown will lead to a drying up of funding for the Chinese tech sector and its implications for those in other countries.

Already, people like Byju Raveendran, founder of the eponymous education technology firm which is valued at $16.5 billion, are claiming that the Chinese government’s move will benefit Indian companies.

“A lot more money is going to chase the Indian companies. India and Indian ed-tech will define how everyone will learn globally,” he said in this interview.

We will have to wait and watch if this prophecy bears fruit.

Equity markets, meanwhile, continue to be nervous after their onwards and upwards march of the past several months. Globally, there is a sense of caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting. Will the rate setting panel talk about easing bond purchases?

For India, vaccines still remain a great uncertainty. A monumental 1.4 billion doses need to be administered in the remaining part of the year to vaccinate the whole adult population by 2021.

On the top of this, the International Monetary Fund has pared India’s growth projections for FY22 to 9.5 percent, dampening investor sentiment.

Our research team believes that this is the year of bottom-up stock picking and sees value in many high profile stocks, too. It has written the following notes full of investment insights:

The Fed should stop treating all money the same  (Republished from the FT)

Picks from our Technical Analysts: LIC Housing Finance, UCO Bank, Manappuram Finance and AU Bank (These are published every trading day before markets open and can be read on the app)

Ravi Krishnan

Moneycontrol Pro