WhiteOak’s Aashish Somaiyaa on the need to rebalance portfolios in Samvat 2081

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As India’s equity markets approach Samvat trading—a special session conducted during an auspicious hour on Diwali, 1 November—it would be wise not to focus much on sectors that delivered high returns in recent years, says Aashish Somaiyaa. The chief executive of WhiteOak Capital AMC expects that recent changes in market trends will continue during Samvat 2081, which marks the beginning of a new Hindu year.

Trends have reversed in recent months, with information technology, consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals emerging as the best performers, Somaiyaa said in an interview with Mint, adding that he expects these sectors to perform well in the new trading year, too. Besides, a shift is occurring across market capitalizations as well. “Over the past month, large caps have outperformed both mid caps and small caps," said Somaiyaa, who’s not unaccustomed to such drastic shifts—following an engineering degree in polymers, he took a master’s course in finance, and began his career in sales before returning to finance.

Edited excerpts: Honestly, I wasn’t a great engineer—I became one mainly because in India a lot of boys become engineers first and figured out their path later. I had always wanted to be an engineer since I was a kid, so I did it. But once I was in the field, I realized it wasn’t for me.

Back then, engineers were paid very little, and I was always drawn to finance and the stock markets, so I decided to shift gears. I started my career in sales in the late ’90s, back when the perception of sales was very different. Many people thought sales was about ringing doorbells and selling soap.