‘India top preference among EMS’

MUMBAI: Emerging markets (EMS) guru Mark Mobius is upbeat on Indian shares, topping the list in the model portfolio of his latest venture Mobius Capital Partners. He sees 15% return for Indian markets until the end of 2018. Mobius, 81, started Mobius Capital Partners after retiring from Franklin Templeton earlier this year. The firm plans to raise around few billion dollars, and intends to focus on emerging and frontier market companies compliant with environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

In a phone interview from London, he said the fund doesn’t intend to invest in the upcoming Saudi Aramco initial public offering (IPO) as it stands right now. He also believes oil may rise to $100 per barrel in 2018. Edited excerpts: that, we are looking at Korea, Russia, Brazil.

India has around 20% weightage in the model portfolio. Valuations are looking stretched for some of the large cap companies in India but if we go down the list, many of the companies look very good, not only in terms of their valuation but also in terms of their potential valuation because of growing earnings.

I think the Indian stock market may gain 15% up to the end of 2018, driven by earnings growth. and may be Mumbai, too, down the road. It would be a few billion dollars. The emphasis will be on governance. We want to help companies improve their corporate governance. The best way to have policies that improve the environment and continue to circle growth, is to have companies that have very good corporate governance Some industrials that are related to construction. We like some of the IT companies, the up and coming ones with new and innovative products. I think the pharma sector is still somewhat expensive. Many of them have hit the regulatory war.