BS BFSI Insight Summit 2022: Fireside chat with G Quant's Shankar Sharma

A maven when it comes to investing in stocks, Shankar Sharma’s straight talk and original thinking sets him apart from the rest.

Sharma co-founded the securities firm First Global in the early 2000s, and was part of the core investment management team in First Global’s asset management business worldwide. First Global has a presence in major geographies such as Asia, the UK and the US. More recently, in 2022, Sharma founded GQuant Investech, a global fintech and asset management company.

Known for his contrarian bets and for spotting major trends ahead of the market, he has been successful at investing for several decades and is lauded for having recognised early on the potential in stocks like HDFC Bank during its heyday. Sharma is equally adept at spotting bubbles and market collapses, as he did in the 2000 tech boom, and spotting the 2008 global financial crisis well ahead of the street, as he was spot-on in predicting the stimulusfuelled rally the global market witnessed in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Sharma has been called “The Alchemist of Dalal Street” by Forbes. His investment mantra: Don’t be bullish or bearish; always be hare-ish (meaning, be as nimble as a hare).