$85B fund manager holds a bullish stance on India

Sudarshan Murthy of US-based GQG Partners LLC, stays bullish on India despite the ongoing global inflation crisis. The firm manages funds worth $85B and has heavily invested more than $7B in India. The investment decision comes on an account of favourable demographics that are driving local consumer demand. The firm has allocated 25% of its emerging-market equity fund portfolio to India with ITC and Reliance being its largest holdings.

Mr. Murthy believes India to emerge strong from a global recession in comparison to other emerging nations, as a thriving domestic market makes it less dependent on exports. Another reason to support his bullish stance was the stable Indian markets performance amidst the US interest-rate hikes and China’s pandemic lockdowns.

The fund manager also believes that the Indian private banks offer better credit growth and profitability than peers in other countries. The foreign outflow from the Indian market baffled the fund manager. However, later he believed that the higher crude prices hurting the import cost and purchasing costs for customers would have been the reasons for the exit. 

The MSCI India Index is down about 5% so far this year compared with a 20% loss in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The broader EM selloff, the worst performance in 24 years, has weighed on performance of the firm's fund, which lost about 18% in the first half.