A few years ago, I had commenced with a column titled ‘Right Now’, which was the title of a popular rock song released three decades ago by the music group, Van Halen.
The lyrics of this song proposed living for the moment and not being afraid of making a change.
So, in this fortnight’s column, I propose to take you, my valued readers, on a Giant-Wheel ride …. ‘Right Now’ across our financial markets.
Right now, the dust seems to be settling on the just ended financial year, which promised a lot of volatility and amidst the high din, was debated threadbare by ‘talking heads’.
For the record, the financial year gone by actually ended up accentuating the bull run at the Indian bourses. Does this mean the current financial year will be the one marked by volatility ? As far as I am concerned, even if it does, what matters is how well prepared an investor is to ride the storm.
Right now, SEBI seems to be on over-drive and even ready to transform from Regulator to Advisor, where it deems fit.
From talking down retail investment in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) to talking up REITs and InvITs, it also publicly instructed Mutual Fund Houses to conduct Stress Tests for their Small Cap Funds and topped that by promising to hunt down FinFluencers.
As Bill Lawry, the Australian cricketing and commentary-box legend might have put it, ‘It’s all happening at the SEBI !!!!’ Many in the market now await the final results of its probe into Hindenberg’s allegations about the Adani group.
Right now, the above mentioned Stress Test on Small Cap Funds whose results have been widely disseminated does not seem to have shut the overflowing inflows into these funds.
In any case, some Mutual Funds had already restricted inflows into their Small Cap Funds to only Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), well before the Stress Tests were initiated.
Right now, there are seasoned market participants doing more than hedging their equity bets with gold. The price of the precious yellow metal continues to surge. And, if the equity markets were to slip at any time, can there be a further uptick in gold prices? Depending on one’s answer to this question, one could either top up the yellow metal or simply sit back and let the growth in value happen on its own sans the deployment of further capital.
Right now, the markets and for that matter, the nation too, is bracing for the upcoming general election.
While the market mood seems to suggest a comfortable electoral win for the ruling party and its allies, I for one believe that the only task as, if not more hazardous than predicting the markets, is predicting election results. I prefer to avoid the media fuelled electoral din and instead, to try and insulate my investments to the extent possible and quietly cast my vote.
(Views are personal.)