Markets, mindsets and the India story

One of the greatest perks of my job is the opportunity to travel about two weeks a month and meet people all over the country and sometimes even outside. What is at the top of people's minds, what are the quirks in their thinking, all of it becomes evident. I meet investment advisors, mutual fund distributors, family office managers, public gathers of investors and advisors and investors themselves. In almost all meetings, there is eventually bound to be some discussion on 'market kya lagta hai'. That discussion cannot be meaningful unless it is correlated in some way with economic and corporate performance expectations and related perceptions. In recent times, the concern has been related to the US political transition and its ramifications for geopolitics - short term as well as long term, the US monetary policy and its impact on our external macro and monetary policy, India's poor GDP growth numbers in H1 FY25, slowing corporate earnings growth, the upcoming fiscal budget and policy, et al. Many commentators have also pinned hopes on H2 FY25