"Indian equities are likely to be a bright spot in the global capital markets"

Manish Gunwani's entry into Bandhan AMC as head of equities early this year, is nothing short of bringing a dream turnaround in their equity schemes. In our latest interaction with him, we understand the changes he has implemented at Bandhan, how he shifted the performance gears of their equity funds, and his overall investment strategy. Bandhan Core Equity Fund and Bandhan Small Cap Fund moved to the first quartile after you took over them. How did you reverse the underperformance of the latter, in particular? On a broader level, the performance has been helped by our investment in building up an experienced research team, which has led to deeper and wider coverage of stocks. More specifically, this calendar year, the funds have participated in themes like energy transition and power capex, pharma, auto, real estate, etc., which has helped performance. You are known for following a growth style of investing. Can you elaborate on your overarching investment philosophy at Bandhan Mutual Fund? In a country like India, which structurally has the highest nominal GDP growth among major economies, we believe most of the portfolio has to ride on long-term earnings growth to capitalise on the opportunities available. However, the ability to play the cycle of an industry or theme, whether it is in the category of growth or value, is probably more important nowadays as cycles are becoming shorter and price discovery is faster. Have you implemented any notable changes in Bandhan's internal processes or investment approach? It is a contin

This article was originally published on November 30, 2023.