Veteran investor and Chairman & Co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Raamdeo Agrawal has a simple message for investors navigating market volatility: look beyond the headlines, focus on corporate earnings and seek high-growth businesses at reasonable valuations. Speaking at NDTV Profit Ignite 2026 on October 28, Agrawal said the global economy and businesses were growing despite uncertainty over geopolitics, tariffs and other macroeconomic developments.
"The world economy is on boom. Thanks to AI capex, defence capex, energy transition capex. There is a boom all over," Agrawal said. He argued that the news cycle can make the outlook appear more uncertain than the underlying business environment.
Taking a swipe at media coverage, he said investors should not allow headlines to distract them from company fundamentals.
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"It's about earnings, earnings, earnings," he said. "Shut the damn thing off and look at the balance sheet and look at the earnings."
Agrawal also said he does not restrict his investment choices by market capitalisation. Whether a company is large, mid-sized or small matters less to him than its growth prospects and the price at which its shares are available. "I can buy a $100 million company. I can buy a billion-dollar company. I can buy a $10 million company also," he said.
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His preferred combination is high growth and a low price-to-earnings (PE) multiple.
He said opportunities were emerging in the market, including in companies trading at PE multiples of 15-20 times and, in some cases, even lower. For investors, he said, identifying businesses capable of growing earnings is critical to wealth creation. But doing so also requires patience and the courage to invest when uncertainty is high.
Responding to a question on how investors should navigate an environment marked by geopolitical, tariff and economic uncertainty, Agrawal said buying into a falling market requires conviction.
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