India equities could outperform rest of Asia, says Manishi Raychaudhuri

FY19 earnings growth would possibly settle at 12-14% and that for FY20 could turn out to be 15-16%, says Manishi Raychaudhuri, BNP Paribas' Asian Equity Strategist

The S&P BSE Sensex hit an all-time high last week. MANISHI RAYCHAUDHURI, BNP Paribas’ Asian Equity Strategist, tells Puneet Wadhwa that they have recently downgraded India to ‘Neutral’ rating from ‘Overweight’ in their Asian Model Portfolio, keeping the Sensex target unaltered at 37,500 by end-2018. Edited excerpts:

Do you think the Asian and the emerging market equities could slip into a bear phase over the next few months?

Going by technical definition – a fall of 20 per cent or more from the peak – a few Asian markets could be considered to have entered a bear phase. The onshore