Jonathan Schiessl on why he will sit on the sidelines on auto and realty stocks

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Jonathan Schiessl, Deputy CIO, Westminster Asset Management, says when it comes to realty stocks, from a stock market perspective, there is the question of whether the companies at play are playing into the bigger picture or whether they are playing into more regional and local pockets of wealth, etc. So, one has to be careful in the stocks one is looking at.
Further Schiessl says in autos, they have some exposure to Maruti, but they are quite selective about that. Tata Motors is having ongoing issues with Jaguar Land Rover and that keeps Schiessl on the sidelines in that sector.

What do you make of the real estate market in India if you have been tracking that? The upper end of the market was doing very well, but at some point of time, the cycle was expected to turn. Do you see that happening now or it is still a bit away?
Jonathan Schiessl: Yes, it is part of the Indian markets, which we do not do a huge amount of work on, if I am honest. We have looked at a few of the high-end developers previously, but obviously real estate of all industries is very localised. It is difficult to put a broad view on the entire space. But that said, clearly some companies in certain pockets have done extremely well more recently. Clearly, the underlying economy is humming along quite nicely and certain companies in certain localities are doing well but it is not something to focus on too much.

What is your sense on the entire real estate market here in India? It is coming out of almost a decadal of underperformance, a very long