Market Momentum To Continue In First Half Of 2024, Says Invesco's Taher Badshah

The positive performance of Indian markets will continue in the first half of the calendar year while the second half will see things cooling, according to Invesco Mutual Fund's Taher Badshah.

"The momentum will continue in the first half of the calendar year to coincide with expectations of strong economic growth, strength of the investment cycle, inflation cooling and consequently rates coming down and election results," Badshah, the president and chief investment officer at the asset manager, told NDTV Profit.

"Much of the growth (in the markets) will be front-ended. In the second half, we can expect things cooling off," he said. "At the moment, valuations are on the high side," he said, adding the chance of lower growth in 2024 compared to the last two years.

Manufacturing and industrials sector will do well, benefitting from the investment cycle, he said.

Badshah said portfolio diversification by having a good mix of mutual fund investments will have a combination of growth and value to tide over any headwinds in the market.

"There's always a possibility of markets going into a sector rotation phenomena, especially when it has done well over the previous 12-18 months. It would be important to diversify," he said.

He also expects active government role to ensure stable liquidity conditions in banks and a healthy credit growth cycle.

"At this stage, we prefer private banks over public sector ones, predominantly large cap ones," he said.

On PSU stocks like railway and defence, he said the space will benefit from higher economic growth, backed by government spending and large order books.

Watch the full conversation here: