MO Large & Midcap Fund has maintained its category leadership position across 1 yr, 3 yr and 5 yr timeframes, delivering over 23% returns over the last 1 year – which is over 10% more than benchmark and category average.
A key factor driving his stock picking acumen is discerning changing industry dynamics earlier than peers. For this, you not only need ear to the ground but also a deep understanding of different businesses, which helps you translate ground level data into actionable insights.
He was among the early ones to spot the trend change in banks – private sector banks were gaining market share over PSU banks continuously until 2 years ago – when that trend began reversing.
His deeper understanding of the EV space enabled him to ride the winners and avoid several landmines of the space.
When people questioned the valuations at which he bought and held quick commerce players, they didn’t quite appreciate the extent to which they disrupted the game of established FMCG giants.
His reading of the Gulf war situation is that if the market’s base case of an early end to hostilities (in next few weeks) comes true, there is unlikely to be a significant hit to FY27 Nifty earnings projections, as channels are well supplied for this quarter.
If however the war and supply disruptions and oil well above $100 persist for next few months, we will see a hit on earnings for many industries and our fiscal situation will worsen – there is no running away from those risks.
The important thing to track – should companies have to take sizeable hits on their bottom lines in these challenging times – is to see which ones are able to hold on to their customers. Those who do this, will bounce back sharply once the event risk is behind us.
Ajay is bullish on healthcare and the power ecosystem –both of which are throwing up number of bottom up ideas.