Now Is The Time To Invest In Indian Stock Markets

Vikas Mehrotra, portfolio manager of Boston-based Iris India Fund, told Bay Street investors, brokers and non-resident Indians that the Indian capital market has in the last few months dropped by 30 per cent.

"The drop in the capital market is not likely to continue as it cannot go to zero," he said.

In a talk on the "Indian economy and stock market at the Toronto Board of Trade", Mehrotra said long-term investment ranging between three and five years in the Indian capital market could earn 25 to 28 per cent annually.

With the value of the rupee declining at an average rate of seven per cent, the net earning could be about 20 per cent from investment in Indian market, he added.

 

Iris India Fund (known as VSL), is established in Luxembourg and Mauritius with its headquarters in New Delhi. The fund is engaged in merchant/investment banking and capital market investments in equity and debt securities.

VSL, Mehrotra said, also gives short-term loans to corporations and institutions, finances capital equipment for financially sound companies and its investment banking clients, primarily to seek shelter from income taxes.

The fund's three-member team led by B M Ojha, former Indian Ambassador to Korea and Sweden, was in Toronto to meet stock brokers and investors interested in investing in India's capital market.

Mehrotra said that the Bombay Stock Exchange, which has an average of 80,000 trades per day and 8,000 companies listed, is the second largest after the New York Exchange.

Iris India Fund has named KHK Partners, a Toronto-based company, as its principal brokers to look after the Canadian market.

When asked what sort of investment the fund has so far been able to mop up from Canadian sources, Mehrotra said, "We are here just to talk to brokers and investors. It will take some time before we see some results. In any case Canada is a good market and the interest in India is growing."

"Charges of corruption against politicians are not confined to India alone. It's a familiar story in Japan, Korea and several other developed and developing countries," said Ojha, when asked whether the corruption charges against former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and former minister Sukh Ram would discourage Canadian and other foreign investors.