Over the next few posts, I will be focusing on the gloom and doom part that has been hitting the newspapers, social media to the extent that there is some ITeS Union as well that has come in. I will talk about those aspects later. First, let us have the Nifty perspective in place.
I have seen a couple of bold comments like Nifty will double again from current levels over the next 5 to 7 years etc. foreign investors are still bullish on India etc etc etc. My take - we have been in a structural bull market since 2013 [some of my more experienced peers say from May 2009 - ok I buy that] Through Twitter, I had mentioned last week that a close below 9450 would be initial signs of weakness. My number is 9480 to be precise and I will be watching out for that this Friday as well. If the close happens to be below the 9450-9480 zone, it will be a confirmation of short-term weakness.
Another aspect we must not forget is that the dynamics of Nifty have changed significantly over the last 10 years. Earlier, Nifty was largely sensitive to Reliance, L&T, Tata Steel but that has changed. Some intelligent analysts renowned in social media have also been pointing out the same. Let us review the current Nifty 50 snapshot as of this week
One may review this file that can be opened with this link
I have taken the top 15 companies by relative weightage contribution to the index. With the telecom consolidation and volatile environment in IT/ITeS sector, some pain is on the cards. I have qualified the impact of recession on that particular stock. A careful look will tell you that the most severely affected firms are IT companies and banks. We need to understand one key thing; when we take the downward impact of IT/ITeS sector, the re-organization drives at telecom companies post Jio and the impending consolidation in the banks, the net impact in terms of affected persons would be at least 15 million [1.5 crore people!] What we many a time fail to realize is the multiplier effect. Every 100 direct jobs added in the IT or Telecom sector also added about 30 jobs indirectly.
That being said, I also disagree with the nay sayers who are predicting gloom and doom. There was so much panic and gloom in 2008 when the blood bath started and Nifty rapidly fell from 6357 to 2252 within a span of a year. From that point, Nifty scaled 6338 again, went all the way down to 4500 and hit 9k levels. From there it came all the way down to 6800 odd levels and now we are near record highs yet again. I do foresee a correction to about 6800-7200 levels once.
One key reason for my alarm bells on an impending correction is the market breadth. There is a divergence in index levels and overall market breadth. A few select stocks are taking the indices higher while a lot of stocks are actually going down. The distance from peak levels for a lot of stocks suggest a distribution pattern. The way mutual funds are advertising the SIP route with emotional appeal, my suspicion levels are inching upwards.And as I always maintain, corrections are good for the market and healthy too. I am particularly negative on the banking sector at the moment. The unsecured credit that is at risk at the market is near record highs. The aspirational young Indian is highly leveraged and by the time the restructuring exercise hits its peak in sensitive sectors, NPAs will be severely on the rise. For the first time perhaps in Indian banking sector, retail segment NPAs will outpace the business segment NPAs.
That being said, it will not be the end of the world. After dot-com, we had doom predictions; after Lehman Brothers, we had doom predictions. The same will happen again. The so called pundits and media spokespersons have selective amnesia and wrong anchor points. Even if we have a 25% correction from current levels, the markets will be way higher than they were in Jan'08 or Nov'10
In the next few posts, I will be discussing not markets but industry analysis and future prospects for people affected by organizational restructuring. Stay tuned and enjoy the ride
I have seen a couple of bold comments like Nifty will double again from current levels over the next 5 to 7 years etc. foreign investors are still bullish on India etc etc etc. My take - we have been in a structural bull market since 2013 [some of my more experienced peers say from May 2009 - ok I buy that] Through Twitter, I had mentioned last week that a close below 9450 would be initial signs of weakness. My number is 9480 to be precise and I will be watching out for that this Friday as well. If the close happens to be below the 9450-9480 zone, it will be a confirmation of short-term weakness.
Another aspect we must not forget is that the dynamics of Nifty have changed significantly over the last 10 years. Earlier, Nifty was largely sensitive to Reliance, L&T, Tata Steel but that has changed. Some intelligent analysts renowned in social media have also been pointing out the same. Let us review the current Nifty 50 snapshot as of this week
One may review this file that can be opened with this link
I have taken the top 15 companies by relative weightage contribution to the index. With the telecom consolidation and volatile environment in IT/ITeS sector, some pain is on the cards. I have qualified the impact of recession on that particular stock. A careful look will tell you that the most severely affected firms are IT companies and banks. We need to understand one key thing; when we take the downward impact of IT/ITeS sector, the re-organization drives at telecom companies post Jio and the impending consolidation in the banks, the net impact in terms of affected persons would be at least 15 million [1.5 crore people!] What we many a time fail to realize is the multiplier effect. Every 100 direct jobs added in the IT or Telecom sector also added about 30 jobs indirectly.
That being said, I also disagree with the nay sayers who are predicting gloom and doom. There was so much panic and gloom in 2008 when the blood bath started and Nifty rapidly fell from 6357 to 2252 within a span of a year. From that point, Nifty scaled 6338 again, went all the way down to 4500 and hit 9k levels. From there it came all the way down to 6800 odd levels and now we are near record highs yet again. I do foresee a correction to about 6800-7200 levels once.
One key reason for my alarm bells on an impending correction is the market breadth. There is a divergence in index levels and overall market breadth. A few select stocks are taking the indices higher while a lot of stocks are actually going down. The distance from peak levels for a lot of stocks suggest a distribution pattern. The way mutual funds are advertising the SIP route with emotional appeal, my suspicion levels are inching upwards.And as I always maintain, corrections are good for the market and healthy too. I am particularly negative on the banking sector at the moment. The unsecured credit that is at risk at the market is near record highs. The aspirational young Indian is highly leveraged and by the time the restructuring exercise hits its peak in sensitive sectors, NPAs will be severely on the rise. For the first time perhaps in Indian banking sector, retail segment NPAs will outpace the business segment NPAs.
That being said, it will not be the end of the world. After dot-com, we had doom predictions; after Lehman Brothers, we had doom predictions. The same will happen again. The so called pundits and media spokespersons have selective amnesia and wrong anchor points. Even if we have a 25% correction from current levels, the markets will be way higher than they were in Jan'08 or Nov'10
In the next few posts, I will be discussing not markets but industry analysis and future prospects for people affected by organizational restructuring. Stay tuned and enjoy the ride
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