ETMarkets AIF Talk: Earnings likely to be next big trigger for equity markets; shifting to quality makes more sense: Vikaas M Sachdeva

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

valuations in the Indian equity market, there are expectations of subdued returns in the second half of 2024, with increased volatility and only marginal gains likely by the end of the year,” says Vikaas M Sachdeva, Managing Director, Sundaram Alternates.

In an interview with ETMarkets, Sachdeva said: “The earnings expectations for the markets for Nifty stocks and for the top 100 stocks are around 15%, but around 20-25% for midcaps. The problem is there is so much euphoria right now that if you fall short of these numbers, you are going to see a pullback happening,” Edited excerpts:

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Now, well, if we wrap up the last six months or you could say the month of June, it has been a month where Indian equity markets remain volatile, but we saw both Sensex and Nifty hitting fresh record highs. What is driving the optimism in the market?
I think for the better part of the last six months, it was in anticipation of the current government coming back with large number of seats and there was a little bit of readjustment in terms of expectation which happened in the first week of June.

But it seems like the markets have regained confidence. Third term, same government, acceleration towards infrastructure investment I think that is what is driving this optimism.

In the first six months of