Having spent much of the past month meeting with managements and dissecting quarter-end financials, we would highlight the following:
SINGAPORE (Dec 13): The Tantallon India Fund closed down 0.87% in November, with markets oscillating in the face of a weak domestic and external demand environment, slowing GDP growth, the growing asymmetric risks of the protests in Hong Kong and the lingering uncertainty with regard to trade sanctions, fragile geopolitics, customs union breakdowns and the “push” for crude production cuts ahead of the Aramco IPO.
Despite the slowdown in GDP growth to 4.5% in 3Q2019 and the lowest in seven years, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex Index is up 12.7% year to date. However, the dichotomy between the narrow (exchangetraded-fund-flows driven) market and the broader markets is particularly vexing, given that the small- and mid-cap universewhich underperformed the big caps, has delivered on substantially superior revenue visibility, earnings, cash flows and dividends.
