Can infra stocks fulfil their bold promise?

Since 2016, Naik has been a fund manager at Axis AMC, where he currently helms around 18 schemes across various categories. Notably, he co-manages the Axis ELSS Tax Saver and Axis Bluechip funds—the AMC's top two funds with a collective AUM (assets under management) of around Rs 71,600 crore. In this interview, the software engineer turned fund manager shares his outlook on the market. Recently, the Sensex breached the 80,000 mark. What is your assessment of the market, and what factors are primarily driving its performance? From an economic point of view, things are and have been decently moving in terms of macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policies and the fact that there is a certain level of continuity seen from the policy front that the market has appreciated. Risks such as geopolitics and the uncertainty resulting from global political changes will undoubtedly persist. Over the past few years, India has witnessed the emergence of newer sectors, which likely gained popularity after being absent for nearly a decade. The government's spending, newer policies and PLI (Production Linked Incentive) initiatives have brought these sectors to the forefront. Therefore, we are witnessing a new wave of development in various mid- and small-cap sectors, with some of these developments also evident in large-cap companies. Overall, this has driven the market towards new highs. Even domestic investors, who have consistently entered the market, have played a significant role in this story. While it's true that Indian valuations are among the highest, a closer examination of growth parameters, as well as ROEs (return on equity) of large-cap companies, reveals a notable positive difference compared to their emerging market counterparts. To that extent, India stands out on both fronts when we compare valuations versus the emerging market peers. Therefore, not all stock