India’s stock market could see a shift in leadership after the strong rally in mid-cap stocks. Chris Wood, Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jefferies, believes large-cap companies may now be in a position to narrow the gap with their mid-cap peers. He also remains positive on India’s long-term growth prospects and sees the recent correction in gold as a buying opportunity.
In an interview with Moneycontrol, Wood said mid-cap stocks have been the standout performers in the Indian market. According to him, stronger earnings growth has helped these companies deliver better returns than large-cap firms.
He said that the Indian stock market was not disappointing for rupee-based investors last year, with mid-caps emerging as the stronger segment.
While maintaining a positive long-term outlook on India, Wood believes the sharp outperformance of mid-cap stocks has created room for large-cap companies to catch up.
He said it would be logical for blue-chip stocks to narrow the performance gap after the strong gains seen in the mid-cap segment in recent months.
Wood said one of the key reasons behind the underperformance of India’s large-cap market over the past 18 months has been the pressure on the IT services sector.
According to him, artificial intelligence has emerged as a major challenge for the industry, making it one of the biggest negative themes for Indian blue-chip companies. He believes the IT services sector is facing significant disruption because of rapid advances in AI.
Apart from equities, Wood also shared a positive view on gold. He believes the recent correction has brought the precious metal into an attractive accumulation zone.
According to him, gold’s inability to hit a fresh high during the Iran conflict indicated that the rally had peaked temporarily and entered a phase of consolidation.
With prices now near the lower end of that trading range, he believes investors can begin accumulating gold again.
Wood said his long-term positive outlook on gold remains unchanged as he continues to believe in the long-term case for the metal. At the same time, he remains optimistic about India’s equity market, with the expectation that large-cap stocks could begin closing the gap after an extended period of mid-cap outperformance.