Credence Capital Organizes Nivesh 2017

Credence Capital, the investment club of IIM Lucknow in association with Media and  Communication Cell, organized its first ever-annual investment summit, Nivesh this month, in 3 parts:

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1. Investment workshop conducted by Pratyush Mittal and Ayush Mittal, the founders of Screener.in 

2. Stock pitch competition judged by Porinju Veliyath, Pratyush, and Ayush Mittal

3. Speaker session by Prashant Jain, Porinju Veliyath, Anand Shah, and Avnish Jain, followed by Panel discussion

 

The stock pitch competition was conducted as the second part of Nivesh, and was judged by the esteemed value investor, Porinju Veliyath, along with the founders of Screener.in, Ayush and Pratyush Mittal. The competition was based on the sugar industry and was a tough fight, which left the judges perplexed, owing to the close competition and competence among the participants from across various B-schools.

 

On 4th November, the pronounced value investors enriched students with their valuable insights about investing rationale, how to select stock picks, their philosophy of investing, their experience over the years, which finally moved on to a panel discussion.

 

Anand Shah, Head of investments, BNP Paribas Asset Management, gave us insights into hitting the rod when it is hot; identifying sectors that outperform the GDP. He started with providing some basic knowledge for the benefit of all those investing enthusiasts without a core finance background. He gave us some key pointers to look for-

• Superior growth

• Strong moat

• Management leadership

• Improving HHI

• Cash, not accounting profits

• Margin of safety

 

He concluded with some statistical evidence, explaining how high valuations do not equal expensive stocks, noise does not equal instability, good/bad politics does not equal good/bad markets, and high GDP growth does not equal high market returns.

 

Porinju Veliyath, the partner in his portfolio management firm Equity Intelligence India Ltd., popularly known as the small-cap czar, shared with us his investment philosophy and what drives his optimism about the Indian equity market. Through examples, he also explained to us that value lies in the small-cap stocks and not in the established players; and also warned us about assessing management quality and the infrastructural situation of our country.

 

Prashant Jain, Executive Director & Chief Investment Officer at HDFC Mutual Fund, one of India’s leading funds, shared the secret to multiplying wealth. As he spoke of his investment rationale and quoted Buffet, the key tips we could take away from his speech included the significance of patience, staying put in the long term, and understanding the compounding effect.

 

Avnish Jain, Head Fixed Income Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, spoke on, “Can bonds ever appreciate like equity”. His 21 years of experience in Treasury and Fixed Income Markets served as a blessing for all those enthusiasts who were loaded with queries about the bond market.

 

This speaker session was followed by the Panel discussion; wherein the esteemed investors shared light on “Is the Indian stock market overvalued and what is the ideal time horizon to hold.” This further put into perspective the contrasting approaches that can be taken while undertaking investment decision-making and what could be the multiple viewpoints and approaches from which a particular occurrence could be evaluated.

 

Thus, the session was an absolute delight for all investment enthusiasts, while it has been successful in inculcating the habit and interest in value investing among the others on campus. The session helped both students and professionals alike, as they advised us on how to go about investing as a novice, while they addressed all the queries that the experienced ones had. The summit was a knowledge enriching one as it not only gave us the mantras to be followed for investing, but also an insight into the practicalities and how we can expose ourselves to this dynamic world and seek to make some profits!