Nothing could stop growth trajectory of Indian equity markets

Hyderabad: Be it the global trade war or the upcoming elections, nothing has disturbed the Indian growth trajectory or prevented the Indian equity markets from scaling heights never touched before, said experts at a panel discussion on “The Impact of Politics on Stock Markets” held in the city on Friday.

The panel discussion, organised by Karvy as part of The Finapolis Knowledge Series, featured Manish Gunwani, chief investment officer of Reliance Mutual Fund, Rajat Jain, chief investment officer at Principal Mutual Fund India, R Srinivasan, editor of The Hindu Business Line, and Nadendla Manohar, former Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Opening the discussion, V Ganesh, CEO of Karvy Computershare, said that in an election year, the government will be tempted to boost expenditure in infrastructure, which augers well with the markets.

“The market will be looking at how the political alliances shape up after the elections. The stock markets will also focus on the three state elections in November and December as the present central government has a number of seats in these states,” said Manish Gunwani.

“Markets would like predictability and certainty,” said Rajat Jain. “People make money when they react proactively to the markets. There is a tendency among Indian investments, they don’t like uncertainty, and hence they participate only after the elections,” said R Srinivasan.

“The stock market doing well is a reflection of the economy. However, we should not rule out the rural economy which will play an important role in the political alliances in the elections next year,” said Nadendla Manohar.