Indian market pricey not expensive & FIIs will return in phases; buying into higher-ticket items: Vikas Pershad

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Vikas Pershad, Portfolio Manager, M&G Investments, says the multiples are high, the price might seem high, but the Indian market is pricey not expensive because one is getting a lot in return and nothing about that has changed since Saturday, nothing about that has changed since the latest Trump 2.0 tariffs came out and so Pershaud remains very constructive on India. The FIIs probably will come back in phases. Until then, the domestic bid should be there.

Pershaud also says consumption-focused Budget doesn’t mean we should be investing in consumer staples. Rather, they have grown exposures in higher-end expenditures, high-end real estate, hotels, airlines,. They have broadened out in life sciences and healthcare services, clinical diagnostics also and are increasing it in defence and some of the infrastructure names also.

So, what is going to be on the market's mind for the next few days? Will it be the T of tariff or will it be T of tax cut?
Vikas Pershad: I think a little bit of both.

You pre-empted some of my comments by highlighting the shift in consumption from the government, but then also why this is not just a broad-based reason for a rally for all consumer names. If we take a step back for a moment, there is nothing that we heard on Saturday that diminishes our enthusiasm for the long term for India. When I met you in September, you made a good point that at that level, it seemed like we were borrowing returns from future years.

I thought about that a lot in the intervening time, days and weeks and months. And you were right. We had a very healthy reset in India, especially in the small and midcap space and I know there is still some pessimism about valuations there, but we are seeing a lot of dislocations.