Chris Wood Jefferies

In terms of sectors, Wood remains bullish on the real estate sector and suggests the Indian realty market to be one of Asia's hottest investment bets, besides Singapore

The MSCI Pakistan Index, according to Wood's note, is trading on 3.7x forecast 2023 consensus earnings and a 2023 forecast dividend yield of 10.2 per cent

A rally in the US markets amid hope of a softer central bank (US Fed) action going ahead, analysts believe, has the potential to fuel a rally in other global equity markets, including India

Most global markets have staged a smart recovery since their June 2022 lows. The S&P BSE Sensex has outperformed its peers with a rise of around 13 per cent since then

The information technology sector (IT), Jefferies believes, remains at significant risk of sell-off if the Nifty were to correct

In his Asia Pacific ex-Japan asset portfolio, allocation to Indian equities at 16 per cent is the second highest after his exposure to China, which stands at 31 per cent.

Further evidence of economic resilience and animal spirits, according to Wood, is continuing strong goods and services tax (GST) revenues and buoyant retail sales

The US Fed raised the target range for the federal funds rate by another 75 bps to 2.25-2.50 per cent in its July meeting. The FOMC statement has downgraded its assessment of the economic situation

The latest consumer inflation (CPI) print in the US for June came in at 9.1 per cent - the highest reading since 1981, and surpassed most analysts' expectations, who had pegged this at 8.8 per cent

As regards valuations, Nomura believes stocks have largely (if not fully) priced in expectations of higher policy/discount rates. They expect the markets to remain choppy in the near-term

In the short-term, Wood suggests that investors should sell stocks on a rally. The bet for a sustained equity market rally before 2022 end is a possible change in the US Fed's language, he said

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In the financial sector, Wood now holds SBI, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Prudential Life, ICICI Lombard and CAMS besides HDFC Bank in his India long-only equity portfolio.

Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies believes that S&P 500 has more room for downside. Investors, he suggests, should look to exit stocks on any intermittent bounce-back.

Chris Wood believes the best way to play Indian markets is the upswing in the Indian property/real estate sector despite the rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

India's March wholesale price index-based inflation (WPI) surged to 14.55 per cent on rising edible oil prices and increase in power prices. WPI inflation in February stood at 13.11 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors exited India in droves and have sold stocks since October 2021 amid fears of an earlier and faster-than-expected rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (US Fed)

Despite the likelihood of an aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (US Fed), a correction in equity markets, analysts expect the primary market action to stay on track, albeit a minor hiccup

A similar view was shared by Raamdeo Agrawal, co-founder and joint managing director, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, who suggested that Indian equity markets were on the cusp of a major bull-run

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