Indian markets should be moving upwards next week: IIFL’s Sanjiv Bhasin

The Indian markets will soon bottom out and the "storm will pass in a week or 10 days", according to Sanjiv Bhasin , director of IIFL Securities.

"I think we are close to bottoming out and we may have already made the bottom at 15,700… from May 23 (Monday next week) we should be moving upwards," said Bhasin in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

He believes India "stands out in the crowd".

Also read: Market live blog on stocks that are driving the sentiment

"Everything cannot be weighed against what is happening in the US and across the globe," he said, adding that the stand-off between the country and Russia is hurting the former the most.

"In this whole juggernaut of up and down volatility, I think Indian equities are still offering the best returns and opportunity to enter," Bhasin said. In Asia, he believes the country and China, which is slowly reopening, are the best bets.

It might be hard to believe this optimistic sentiment when the market has been trending sharply downwards for more than a month now. But, according to Bhasin, it offers great opportunities.

"You have to buy the fear if you want to make money," he said, adding that this is the time to put money behind bets that one believes in.

He asked investors not to get worried by the general sentiment. "Stay put," he said. "Just as everyone was bullish at 18,000 levels, now people are bearish and talking about 14,000 levels and what not."

Bhasin added, "The US is seeing extreme bouts (of volatility) and the ETF (exchange traded fund) outflows may have peaked. Smart money is definitely going to be buying."

The director of IIFL Securities believes the crude rally is coming to an end and that the Russia-Ukraine crisis has already been factored in by the markets, and the crisis may soon resolve. "So fingers crossed, I think we should be past the storm in a week or 10 days," he said.

On the stocks he is betting on, Bhasin said, "Safety is in Reliance, Maruti, Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Unilever and Godrej Consumer. Realty is in a sweet spot, with the worst behind us and sales picking up. Godrej Properties and DLF are available at mouth-watering levels, the list is endless. It (length of the list) depends on how much money an investor has and how much fear he can stomach," he said.

Bhasin added that this is the best time to buy tech stocks too: "Three months back, IT (information technology) was touted the place to be, (with talk of) AI (artificial intelligence), cloud computing… you name it. Suddenly, when the US FANG stocks (Meta which was Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet) sell off, there are no buyers for IT stocks. I think this is the best opportunity to buy stocks such as HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and Persistent Systems, which just launched banking software. Where are you going to get these opportunities? I would say, start an SIP (systematic investment plan) in any of the IT funds and you will be making money in the next 6 to 18 weeks."

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