Are overheated valuations dragging down growth? Pratik Gupta answers
"Demand had been depressed for a while. What has happened is firstly, things were never as good as the companies were talking about back two-three months back, but equally we do not think it is as bad either as how things are perceived to be right now. It is not doom and gloom. It is not a perpetual slowdown," says Pratik Gupta, Kotak Institutional Equities
We are underperforming global markets and now the earnings in a sense have been marred with a string of disappointment. What has changed in between last quarter and now that the management commentary, the growth outlook and the demand environment is looking so sluggish?
Pratik Gupta: Yes, you are right. We believe we are already seeing at Kotak series of earnings downgrades across the board in most companies and the December quarter will also not be very strong based on the early commentary about the festive season, this is as far as the consumer sector is concerned.
What has happened is firstly, if you recall back about three-four months back after the Indian election results, there was this perception the government spending on capex would slow down and you will see a shift more towards revenue expenditure and also the monsoons turned out to be good, so there was an expectation that consumer demand would finally pick up.
Demand had been depressed for a while. What has happened is firstly, things were never as good as the companies were talking about back two-three months back, but equally we do not think it is as bad either as how things are perceived to be
