“I am betting on the Indian smallcap stocks,” says market veteran Shankar Sharma

New Delhi: The big sell-off in the markets throughout the world continues with most major markets reporting a decline this week. Market veteran, Mr. Shankar Sharma joined ET Now on our 13^th anniversary to share his views on the carnage and help investors sail through choppy markets. He believes that the US economy is already in recession with a big slowdown in consumer spending. The headline indices lag ground realty in his opinion. On the flipside, he believes that India is definitely not heading for a recession but instead is heading for a slowdown. Consequently, a moderation in growth can be expected.

The recent sell-off is the after effect of the 10-year Bull market which defied logic. Nevertheless, Mr. Sharma is betting on the Indian smallcap space and adds that he does not own any stocks from benchmark indices. He believes that even in this terrible market situation, if you go looking under the hood, you will find 10 such stocks that can provide good returns for the next few years. He justifies this by saying that an investment he made in an ice cream manufacturer in Ahmedabad gave him phenomenal returns even amidst the market turmoil.

As for Indian Technology companies, the US recession may be a headwind. Big technology companies and allied companies in the US have hit a wall in terms of growth in his opinion. With the recession there, companies may limit spends which may adversely impact Indian companies. Consequently, he says, “Indian IT companies may not be as happy looking forward as they were looking back.”

As for his holding in Twitter, he confirms hat he sold twitter at $48-50/share. He does not expect the Musk-Twitter Deal to go through and thinks that Elon Musk is looking for a way out of the deal.

Concluding his outlook on the markets, he firmly believes that it is an opportune time to build a portfolio of 10-15 stocks. In his opinion, bottom-up stock picking opportunities will crop up over the next few months and investors should be on the lookout for such investments to create wealth over the next few years.