Fund managers remain on sidelines as sentiments fall

Markets witnessed sharp sell-off during the week with Nifty drifting below the 5,900 mark. The hope of a rally getting extended faded mid-week with high retail and wholesale inflation numbers diminishing the hopes of rate cuts in the Reserve Bank of India's forthcoming policy review. Money laundering charges involving big private sector banks weakened the market sentiments further.

Except Shardul Kulkarni of Angel Broking, all other fund managers remained on the sidelines for the week.(Click here for tables)

A K PRABHAKAR
Sr VP (Equity Research), Anand Rathi Financial Services

Going against the consensus, Prabhakar is not expecting any rate cut or cash reserve ratio (CRR) cut in the coming policy meet, but is expecting a 50 basis points (bps) cut in the May policy. According to him, technically India is not facing stagflation even as inflation remains high and growth is lower.

Prabhakar's net worth is at Rs 10.31 lakh, up 3.14 per cent.

SHARDUL KULKARNI
Head, Technical Research, Angel Broking
Kulkarni made a series of buys in the form of Hindustan Unilever, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Titan Industries and BOC India.

He believes that even as there is a clear consensus for a 25 bps cut in the repo and reverse repo, there can be a case of an additional CRR cut to boost liquidity. A rare possibility of no change in interest rates will have the bulls gasping for breath. Kulkarni's net worth is at Rs 11.63 lakh, up 16.33 per cent.

NAVEEN FERNANDES
Fund Manager, Centrum Wealth
Fernandes firmly expects a minimum 25 bps cut in benchmark rate. He believes it could be as much as 50 bps since gross domestic product (GDP) growth has fallen badly and core (non-food, non-fuel) inflation has come below four per cent despite high headline inflation during the last three years.

Fernandes' net worth is at Rs 11.12 lakh, up 11.18 per cent.

KISHOR OSTWAL
CMD, CNI Research
Ostwal believes RBI will cut a minimum 25 bps as the government may desire to see rate cut due to falling GDP. Ostwal's net worth is at Rs 10.40 lakh, up 3.96 per cent.

SACHIN SHAH
Fund Manager, Emkay Investment Managers
Shah's net worth is at Rs 10.92 lakh, up 9.23 per cent.

TAHER BADSHAH
Sr VP and co-head equities, Motilal Oswal AMC - PMS
Badshah sees a 25bps cut and liquidity enhancing measures in the March 19 review. Badshah's net worth is at Rs 11.71 lakh, up 17.06 per cent.