Corporate earnings and the outcome of the Karnataka polls are two big events back home that are likely to keep the markets choppy in May. SWATI KULKARNI,executive vice-president and fund manager – equities, UTI Mutual Fund tells Puneet Wadhwa in an interview that though mid-and small-cap companies are at a higher valuation as compared to their large-cap peers, one can still find value in select pockets. Edited excerpts:
What has been your investment strategy thus far in calendar year 2018 (CY18)?
We have not changed our investment strategy in the last six months. In UTI Mastershare, we follow ‘Growth at Reasonable Price’ approach. At times market may underestimate the long-term growth potential and value stocks accordingly, our focus is to look for such opportunities. One such recent example could be our investment in information technology (IT). Around six – eight months ago, we went overweight on the IT segment, when market was underestimating the medium-term growth potential. The sector was available at an attractive valuation of around 15 – 17x price-to-earnings (PE) multiple versus the benchmark index, which was around 26x.
