On March 21, 2015, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur organized a Finance Conclave. The occasion witnessed the presence of eminent personalities: Dr. Kapil Arora, Associate Professor (Finance), JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur; Mr. K C Sharma, Retd. GM, Bank of Rajasthan; Dr. Satish Kumar, Assistant Professor (Finance) Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur; Mr. Manish Gupta, stock market analyst and founder, Future Capital Advisors; Mr. Gaurav Goyal, Regional Head, SunteckWealthmax; and Mr. Arpit Gupta, Equity Research Analyst and Founder, Achievers Institute.

While addressing the inaugural session,Dr. Swati Soni, Dean, Jaipuria Institute of Management, stressed the relevance of the topic in times of rising markets and market expectations of high growth in Indiaowing to a stable government and improving macroeconomic fundamentals.
Prof. Prashant Sharma, Assistant Professor, Jaipuria Institute of Management delivered the opening remarks by putting forth the need for highlighting the two different factors responsible for the market movements – i.e. fundamental and sentimental.

Dr. Satish Kumar, Assistant Professor, MNIT, Jaipur and moderator of the panel discussion, discusses the “irrational exuberance” persistent in the market and the need for tackling challenges, including the fiscal deficit, a huge piling of NPAs of public sector banks, high inflation and a bleak global outlook for improving the long term prospects of the market.

Dr. Kapil Arora, Associate Professor, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, highlighted the role of herd mentality and behavioral finance perspective in the movement of financial markets. He emphasized the focus on financial services, digital connectivity, retail, education, power and agriculture to bring about long term growth in the financial markets.

Mr. Manish Gupta, stock market analyst and founder, Future Capital Advisors said that he is quite bullish on the stock markets. With a lot of liquidity available around the world with FIIs, Indian markets have a golden period looking ahead. Major shares may be trading at all-time highs, but still they could be bought as the markets are slated to beat all previous records.

Mr. K.C Sharma, Retd. GM, Bank of Rajasthan, emphasized that the movement is primarily because of sentiments. The significant fall in the stock index after the passing of the Union budget signifies that however strong the growth measures may be in the budget, the market is based more on daily news and sentimental factors. He stressed that though the market may be flowing with huge liquidity due to a recent decline in the repo rate, the liquidity does not result in building up of infrastructure and growth but does find its way into the speculative activities like stock markets.

Mr. Gaurav Goyal, Regional Head, Sunteck Wealthmax, talked about the importance of patience and discipline in stock investing.

Mr. Arpit Gupta, Equity Research Analyst and Founder, Achievers Institute, put forth two perspectives for analyzing the stock markets. He emphasized that though the market is overvalued currently with P/E ratio 23 times and P/B ratio 3.6 times, the EPS and ROE growth rate has not increased, reflecting that the market is based more on sentiments.

In the end, Prof. Bhawani Singh Rathore, Assistant Professor, Jaipuria Institute of Management delivered the vote of thanks to all the guests and participants. He thanked all the experts for deliberating on the topic, which is very much relevant in a time when India is gearing up for a double digit growth rate.