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| EDITOR’S NOTE |
(^) Outlook BUSINESS / (^) 22 December 2017
It may be winter but most bears have been
given a good hiding. The current bull run has
steamrolled a lot of worries; be it faltering
growth, earning downgrades, the Goods and
Services Tax implementation hiccups and the
Reserve Bank of India’s refusal to play ball
on interest rates. In this ‘new normal’ market,
even the threat of a North Korean nuclear war
gets discounted in a couple of sessions. But as
the year draws to a close, the benchmark
indices, Nift y and Sensex, have given up some
of their gain on uncertainty about the upcom-
ing Gujarat assembly elections and fear of the
FY 18 fi scal defi cit being breached. Still, as this
special issue goes to print, they are up 22 % for
the year.
More than foreign portfolio investors, who
have been the traditional market driver, this
time around domestic mutual funds have played
a bigger role by pumping in over # 100 , 000 crore
into equities. This infl ow is more than thrice
what they had invested in 2016 and twice what
foreign institutional investors have pumped in
year-till-date. Not surprising that buoyed by
ebullient retail investors, the country’s top mu-
tual fund houses are making a beeline to list,
with Reliance AMC fi rst off the block.
Almost everything has moved north but those
punting on the right mid-cap names have made
a killing. Over 130 stocks have doubled between
January and November 2017 against just 13 in
2016. Last year, the clobbering post-demonetisa-
tion did play a role and many stocks might have
given away their gain in November 2016. This
year, 85 stocks in the # 500 crore to # 5 , 000 crore
range have seen their market cap double. For a
detailed view, turn to page 8.
Cherry picking stocks at the beginning of
the New Year is an annual ritual for us and
this year is no diff erent. For the coming year,
we have got 16 market analysts to put their
neck on the line. Their recommendations span
across fi nancials, auto, housing materials and
construction, hospitality to FMCG. Happy
investing in 2018!
N Mahalakshmi
Orbit unknown
http://www.outlookbusiness.com | email: [email protected]