WHO: AJAY MEHRA is Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Columbia Management Group (a FleetBoston company), managing the large-cap core mutual fund. Mehra is responsible for equity research and stock selection in the media, telecommunications, and healthcare areas. He joined Columbia in 1998, prior to which he was a consumer products analyst for Morgan Stanley. Mehra holds a Ph.D. in management from the University of Massachusetts, and has taught business strategy as a business school professor at West Virginia University.

STRATEGY: “We examine the macro variables—dollar strength, market trends, government policies, demographics, themes, and then we overweight or underweight sectors,” says Mehra. Sometimes, the research doesn’t throw up a theme, and the team looks at just stock. In this instance, Mehra says he takes a closer look at stocks which are out of favor. “Everybody hates Bristol-Myers Squibb, but look at its figures,” urges Mehra. “I tend to lean towards conservative selections.”

PORTFOLIO: “Healthcare is high on our list,” says Mehra. The company is underweighting financials, and technology. Equal weightage is given in energy and media. There is more time for these sectors to come back to normal. “There are big mergers in the retail section, and we are interested in this area,” says Mehra. Some of the old economy stock like Sears and DuPont also appear interesting.

ADVICE: “I don’t think this is the time to be in the market,” says Mehra. “This appears to be an investor-led recession, which tends to take longer to recover.” The investor boom that occurred three years ago is still compressing corporate profitability. “I am not sure we have hit the bottom of the market, and I would be pretty cautious right now,” warns Mehra. If the investment is for a long-term purpose, it may be the right time to nibble at the market, but if it were for the short term, Mehra recommends to stay with cash. “There is nothing wrong with that!”