The third quarter earnings season has started in a positive manner but a lot of people are questioning this positivity from corporate India on the earnings front. What are your views?
In the first decade of this particular century — 2000-2010 — earnings and market moved in tandem. There was no rerating of the market at that point of time. But in the second decade — 2010-2020 — the Nifty earnings moved 40% of the market, the Nifty50 stocks, which effectively shows that there has been a rerating of the multiple in this period.
I would like to believe that in some ways, this is reflective of what is happening today. The market multiples on stocks which are trading today and are arguably significantly greater than the market earnings. But that is also partly because we are coming out of a very difficult, negative pandemic period. Now, with the arrival of vaccines and with kickstarting of the economy, there seems to be more positive sentiment.
I would like to believe that the earnings will show a sharp increase. We are coming from a very, very low base but I would also like to believe that the market is quoting at a significant variance to just the earnings because of a very positive sentiment backed up by a huge amount of FII flows at this point of time. I tend to agree with what former governor Raghuram Rajan said, there is reason to feel positive and optimistic about the earning uptick but perhaps we need to be a little cautious and not over predict this optimism at this point of time.
What are you sensing about the quality of recovery? Does it look durable to you or it is still shaky?
We were always of the opinion that the recovery will be more K-shaped versus a V-shape or a W-shape. There are segments that will recover fast and we have already seen that. There are companies that are going to grow, coming out of this pandemic very aggressively and hopefully make up for some of the loss time. There will be sectors and segments that will remain on the slow path. Tourism, travel, hospitality and entertainment are segments that were deeply affected by the pandemic and the recovery out of that negative feeling and negative sentiment is bound to be a little slower.
What is very obvious is that the upper end of the K has shown a sharper and perhaps a more resilient growth curve whether it is in the agri sector where Mahindra & Mahindra is a great example; in the commercial vehicle sector, where Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland and several other consumer companies have recovered. Look at the consumer credit uptake over the last 30-45 days though it is a very short period to predict anything firm at this point of time.
Our regulator has kind of cautioned us that we should not get over optimistic about the challenges that the lending sector particularly the NBFC sector will face but I would argue and say that 60 days ago, we would have not felt as optimistic and we could not have predicted that the recovery will be perhaps as sharp and as resilient as it has been. So, I go back to the original point that it was bound to be a K-shaped recovery. It is coming up like a K-shaped recovery except the upper end of the K is showing a greater resilience and more positive outcome than many of us would have predicted 60 days ago.
What are the enquiries you are getting in your investment bank end of the team? Which kind of assets and sectors are seeing big chunky flows or long-term money?
Let us divide that into listed and unlisted stocks. There is a growing interest for foreign investment in both the FPI segment as well as the FDI segment. In the FPI segment, the bigger winners are quite obvious. IT is leading the way, digital is leading the way, as is pharma and chemicals. We saw Mrs Bectors IPO. We saw the outcome of the Burger King IPO. Before that, we saw the Chemcon IPO that we led. The winners in the listed segment are clearly in a broad range starting from IT on one side, chemicals, intermediaries, pharma, food.
On the unlisted side there is immense amount of capital in the digital and e-commerce space. The start-up space continues to attract a lot of attention and a lot of capital at this point of time. Infrastructure continues to be a recipient of very large doses of capital. Real estate is a new entrant. One did not realise six months ago that real estate could make such a strong comeback and the reduction of stamp duty alone cannot be the only cause.
Some of the other regulatory changes that the government has announced including the rates on which transactions can happen also helped. All those things have made real estate a relatively attractive sector again and we are seeing lots of investment in REITs also.
I would argue that in the unlisted space, start-ups, digital, infrastructure are big recipients. In the listed space it is pretty much across-the-board, led by technology, pharma and chemicals and then followed by several other sectors in the food segment and the QSR segment.
