covid 2.0: ETMarkets’ Investors’ Guide: Will the recovery from Covid 2.0 be similar to last year’s?

Welcome to ETMarkets’ Investors Guide, a show about asset classes, market trends, and investment opportunities. This is Chiranjivi Chakraborty.

As the debate intensifies over the disconnect between the stock market and the health crisis caused by the second Covid wave, investors are searching for answers and guidance. We caught up with a veteran long-term asset manager, Shyamsunder Bhat of Exide Life Insurance, to find some of those answers.

Mr Bhat, who manages assets of around Rs 18,000 crore, spoke to ETMarkets.com on how the market is looking beyond Covid, where are the pockets of froth and how to handle the conflicting emotions that investors are going through at this point.

Q. Is the market too optimistic about post-Covid recovery given the limited fall so far despite a raging pandemic?

Q. One of the major factors that helped the market rally last year was the pent-up demand in the economy that we saw after the lockdown ended. Do you feel the market may not have that to bank upon this time?

Q. Do you see pockets of froth in this market?

Q. With some signals emerging from the US about Fed’s policy normalisation, what kind of stocks should investors prioritise from a two-year perspective?

Q. What guidance will you give for investors about handling the conflicting emotions they are facing when they listen to news and when they look at markets?

That’s it folks in this week’s edition of the Investors’ Guide. Do come back next Saturday for this weekly special. You can check out our regular podcasts on the equity market twice every week day.

Thank you for joining in, and have a great weekend!