The overall outlook and investment sentiment towards the equity market, from a longer term investment horizon, remains positive. This is one of the major findings of a just released Fund Managers Survey, by ICICI Securities covering domestic fund managers from the mutual fund industry.
Further, a majority of the fund managers expect the Union Budget to be balanced with no major impact on the markets in the near term. None of the respondents expect the Budget to be populist and negative for the markets.
However, the survey reports that, with the recent rally in the equity market, majority of the participants have turned slightly cautious in the near term. A Total 80% of fund managers believe the equity markets are fairly valued. A Total 70% of fund managers expect the market to be up between 10% and 15% by the end of 2013.
Further insights from the survey reveal that, the Preference towards the infra/capital goods, pharma and IT sector has increased as compared to the previous survey while FMCG/consumer oriented sector has seen a significant decline in preference.
A Total 60% of fund managers expect the 10 year benchmark G-sec yield to be in the 7.50-7.75% range while 40% expect it to be in the 7.75%-8.00% range.
However, the survey revealed that there were concerns over higher global crude oil prices have increased after the recent rise in oil prices.