40:40:20 allocation balances both risk and reward: Rahul Singh of Tata Mutual Fund

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

The year is drawing to a close and the stock market is at the crossroads. On on side uncertainties are looming, but on the other unbridled optimism is driving investors' confidence. ETMutualFunds spoke to Rahul Singh, CIO — Equities, Tata Mutual Fund, to make sense of what is happening in the market.

«When we enter a year it is always interesting and challenging. I have not seen any year where we are entering in January and we say that markets will give 20-25%. Every year we enter with the same emotion,» says Singh, who was in Delhi recently.

«What we have to do is to see what makes sense, how do we change our portfolio, how do we remain sensible in that scenario,» he adds. Edited interview.

The year is drawing to a close. Mutual fund houses and investors had a great year in 2023.

Looking back, what are your impressions?

A lot of things happened in 2023. Firstly, because of the geo-political situation as well as the balance sheet strength of the corporate sector and the banking sector, there was initial revival in the investment side. Look at the corporate sector you are seeing more investments happening.

Of course, no comparison to what happened in 2006 and 2008, which was a mega capex cycle, but there is still a revival. The second thing is that you were seeing the fact that the interest rate, everyone's expectation that it will start coming down by the end of the year, it is obviously not happening. Markets become broader, essentially because the FII selling continue given that the interest rate are high.

At the same time the different parts of the economy started doing well. This is why the mid and small cap started doing well. This year will be always remembered for the very broad base market but driven by the