'If the Sensex remains over 5000 for some time, it will climb higher,' says Ramesh S Damani.

newsbieatstock : sir, do you think an MBA helps when it comes to the market? what education should one pursue ?
Ramesh S Damani : any background that teaches you to think, communicate clearly. read a lot. that is the best advice i can give you.

newsbieatstock : your views on bse weekly option trading ? you think is a good way to counter NSe
Ramesh S Damani : looks like a fresh idea.

MAHESHWARI : If Crude goes up so will petrol and diesel sooner rather then later. DOes it have a negative effecty on Maruti Telco (car sales) Cement & STeel companies (freight cost) HP BP is that why people are lokinbg at tech but there the dollar demon still stands where does one go?
Ramesh S Damani : oil price rise is negative for equities in general, except tech sector. It may have stabilised for a while.

nadar : mr.damani. can you talk about your long term holdings. what are the core holdings in your portfolio. can you elabrate about five stocks
Ramesh S Damani : mainly bpo, tech and psu. i have holdings in e-serve, mcmillan, bel, mcdowell and the like.

asdasda : Sir in the last 12 years every time a new govt is formed people have turned bearish. But, on the contrary each successive govt has been increasingly reformist. There is no reason the trend should not continue despite the left (remember we had RSS angle in NDA and socialist agenda in UF govts earlier) I believe the tend will continue. Ur take??
Ramesh S Damani : i agree., reforms will come. it is a matter of timing, we cannot go back to the India of 1950.

ValueGuy : Why is the stock market reacting crazily to the PSU stocks on account of dis-investment I do not know ? Many of the PSU stocks are generating huge cash and are still a value buy at these levels and I plan to invest more in PSU's on a long term basis as I feel that many PSU's satisfy Buffet's concept of Value Investing ? What are ur opinions on this ?
Ramesh S Damani : it is a good point but maybe not at the current valuations. Container, for e.g., is not a cheap stock anymore m-cap basis.

RKR : I got another question which i think is interesting... i have a portfolio which is outperforming index since last one year in terms or returns. Now, markets are at a critical juncture... what do you think sir? if my portfolio is already outperforming Sensex, would it generally continue to do so OR it is time to churn the portfolio as it already has made good moves by outperforming the sensex?
Ramesh S Damani : that only time can answer, but generally if they are good quality cos that you are invested in then market leadership should outperform for the duration of the bull market.

vikas1 : Sundaram Finace : Is everything right on track. U said new investment will bear fruit in future . What exactly is that and did u use fall to add on
Ramesh S Damani : this is a co you don't have to worry about too much, let mgmt do there work, while we enjoy as shareholders.

Rajat : At Investor Camp at Hyatt, you said that the leaders in this Bull Run would still be Banks PSU Pharmas, etc. Do you still believe that the Government can provide a booster to companies like SBI, Concor, BEL, BPCL, HPCL, to regain their earnings potential as well as attract foreign investment?
Ramesh S Damani : over time any govt will have to come back to reforms., it will take one to two years though.

nriinv1 : Mr. Damani dont you think more MBA should eye Dalal Street the same way MBA Americans eye Wall Street.
Ramesh S Damani : yes.

rki : Are u convinced about shree raj syntex's prospects? when r quarterly results to be declared? any hope of dividend this year?
Ramesh S Damani : decent chance.

AnandBBhatt : Dear Sir, Today Ravi Chaddha on CNBC said that if there was sense in what many think- that HNI's would exit around 5400-5500 levels and want to reenter around 4500 levels. He said that's exactly right. Also someone from Meriill Lynch said that he was quite sure that 2-3 billion $ will flow out from our markets. The FII factor is very, very worring with all the foreign brokerages changing their rating on India. Also what do you think about this HNI theory that's floating around which Ravi Chaddha endorses?
Ramesh S Damani : you cannot predict money flows or timing. it doesn't work. if you have a stock compounding at 30% at 5% yield and PE of 10, trust me you will make a pot of money., try figuring that out rather than money flows.

Rajat : How long can the oil price rise depress markets? Over time i believe all this evens out. long term investors still have a great future if they are using dips as buying opportunities in good companies. watching markets everyday & getting influenced to change your portfolio is absolutely not required. in fact we should look for value every time there is a sharp decline and remain invested for dividends and ultimately long tern gains. do you agree?
Ramesh S Damani : that is a great philosophy, stick to it and you will be a winner.

asdasda : sir look at the irony. tech now is being termed as defensive, while earlier everything else other than tech was defensive. dont u think its a contrived logic and tech remains highly volatile with poor visibility??
Ramesh S Damani : not really, valuations are in your favour and they are underowned.

SUBHANKER : Good evening sir, there is a lot of volatility in the market. As our past reminds us, whenever bull market is ending last turn of it stocks and lever is coming to give upperward correction. as we seen nowadays that old economy stocks are sideways or declining and market is flare up with the infulance of IT  sector and hind lever. so you think that we should be beware at this time?
Ramesh S Damani : i think if we remain broadly over 5000, we would still be in a bull market. if we can remain over 5000 over time we will climb higher.

vikas1 : Macmillan : What exactly are you expecting from this company. Is co. doing great but market not rewarding or u expect things are improving and will create fire works in the company. Is UB H not your core holding .
Ramesh S Damani : ITES buisness is growing at 50% with 50% margins. i hope that will continue. publishing is not doing well. however future is in ites. ubh is too speculative to be a core holding, though i own it.

MAHESHWARI : I want you to answer this there is a lot of discussion of our indices hitting 4000 and the like. My q if India under a congress govt is a sell at 6000 why should it be a sell at 4000 also. Stocks always have a 2 way quote just because something is not so good does it mena that we have to hit 4000? We may sell at 5500 - 6000 but at 4500 - 5000 we are at 12 times fy 05 for the index. I cannot digest this! What do you say?
Ramesh S Damani : bull markets don't care about govts, they tend to recover.

SUBHANKER : Sir I like to give u one suggetion as we are master in accumlating stock we are not as much master in booking profit as higher levels. Sir, as you recommnad good stock you should also tell us when the time of profit booking is there. thanks
Ramesh S Damani : i do from time to time, no one answer is correct when selling. i sold say Matrix early and it kept going up. you have to learn to think for your self.

surendra : Damaniji, Policy on disinvestment of the new Govt does not affect PSUs like ONGC,GAIL. Then why are they quoting below IPO offer prices?
Ramesh S Damani : Sentiment overhang.

RKR : did you realise something sir? when the market was 6000, everyone was flush of new ideas and they were asking you about new companies every now and then. now we are 20% down and nobody is talking about any new company/idea. i guess what Uday Kotak says is exactly true that only two things -- fear and greed -- run the markets..
Ramesh S Damani : fear, greed and folly. Trouble is we don't know the sequence, so avoid timing the market.

ValueGuy : Do u feel that the Bears have outwitted the bulls now and do u feel that the Bulls will come back with a vengance and drive the bears out after the budget (if it is a chidambaram's dream budget )
Ramesh S Damani : i remain optimistic. Thanks all for joining. See you next week, bye.