Daiwa MF bullish on infra-space, but averse to realty


Mumbai: With the government targeting a trillion dollar investment in the infrastructure space during the 12th Plan (2012-17), leading Japanese mutual fund house Daiwa is betting on the sector with a long-term view in mind. "We have to get back to the infrastructure space. That has to be the space in India for the next couple of decades. But minus the infrastructure space, the growth story is going to take a hit in this market," Daiwa Asset Management India Chief Investment Officer Sethuram Iyer told PTI here. Daiwa India AMC, which had Rs 244 crore worth of assets under management as of end March, is likely to keep away from investing in the stocks of real estate companies. Iyer says the fund house would like to cherry pick its stock across the different sectors, for the short-term, but would be averse to do so in the realty space. "As of now, most sectors look promising... The market has corrected across the board. Now it has moved down to individual stocks. We feel individual companies will do better than their respective sectors. It is going to be a completely bottomed-up kind of a market in the near term," he said. "Real estate has always remained a taboo for us. Real estate and interest rate-sensitive sectors need to be watched carefully," Iyer cautioned. He, however, pointed out that one could look at selectively investing in auto stocks and said interest rate-neutral sectors such as pharma would be a better option. Mirroring global peers, the domestic markets have been choppy since the beginning of this calendar year. Since the market barometer Sensex touched a life-time high of 21,1005 on November 6, it has been on a downhill slide.
Source: PTI