“Volatilities have been part and parcel of the market for many years,” Javeri said in an interview with ET Now. “When the markets are giving this kind of opportunity to enter some of the names that you have been looking at owning — and valuations are in your favour — that is the time to act.”
“If you were sitting on the fence thinking the market was overvalued, probably this is the right time. Valuations are in your favour,” Javeri says.
ETMarkets.comGoing bottom-up
Javeri’s approach is firmly bottom-up. Rather than making sweeping macro calls, he advocates reverse-engineering returns: identify a stock’s fair value, decide what returns you need over three years, and ask whether the current price gets you there. In a market gripped by fear, he says, that discipline is what separates good decisions from reactive ones.
Three sectors stand out to him right now. Private sector banks, despite headline worries around asset quality and leadership changes at some institutions, are trading below broader market valuations — a gap he believes is difficult to justify on fundamentals. Capital goods and the auto and auto-ancillary space are also on his radar, where he sees valuations that look attractive on a medium-term view.
Disruption from West Asia crisis to last 45-60 days
On the question of West Asia’s impact, Javeri draws a direct parallel to the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Oil prices spiked sharply after that war broke out in early 2022 and kept climbing until around June of that year. Inflation weighed on corporate earnings well into December 2022. Yet investors who bought around June 2022, at the height of the uncertainty, “made phenomenal returns” on their portfolios. His conclusion: exogenous shocks create the best entry points, provided the underlying business is fundamentally sound.
“Any disruption from the current conflict is likely to last 45 to 60 days,” he said. “Post that, it is going to be a level playing field for everybody.”Energy-intensive sectors such as ceramics are feeling near-term pressure from fuel availability issues, Javeri acknowledged. But he cautions against letting short-cycle pain drive long-cycle decisions. The key question he asks of any holding under pressure is whether the problem is exogenous — something the market environment is causing — or endogenous — something specific to the company. The former he can tolerate; the latter requires scrutiny over how quickly and credibly it can be resolved.
Us the cash, now
On IT, Emkay’s exposure is selective and deliberately limited. Javeri expects overall earnings growth for the sector to lag Nifty growth over the next two to three years, making broad-based IT bets unattractive. Instead, the firm has positioned in companies tied to digitalisation and automation — a narrower, more defensible slice of the technology landscape.
His overarching message for investors sitting on cash: the discomfort you feel right now is the same discomfort that historically precedes the best returns. Use it.