While the bulls and bears clash on Dalal Street amid the geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, Motilal Oswal Financial Services’ Chairman Raamdeo Agrawal said that India is a ‘Ferrari’ among global markets, and remains one of the world’s best hunting grounds for multi-bagger stocks.

Speaking at Groww India Investor Festival 2026, the market veteran said that decades of compounding, rising financialisation and structural growth trends have built the strong foundation of the Indian market. “I have seen Sensex go from 100 to 80,000 in 40 years. For me to believe the journey will be any different over the next 40 years, there is no argument for that,” Agrawal said.

Markets in South Korea and Japan have recently seen sharp surges to record highs, while Dalal Street delivered comparatively muted returns. Many analysts highlighted that the strong earnings growth by several of these markets, thanks to the AI boom, is attracting FPI flows into those markets. Agrawal, however, reaffirmed that India’s long-term structural trajectory remains unmatched, while acknowledging that some regions are currently benefiting from an AI-led earnings cycle.

Drawing a comparison between India’s Sensex and South Korea’s KOSPI, both launched in January 1980, Agrawal pointed out that while the Korean benchmark index is at around 5,000 points today, the Sensex has climbed past 80,000. “Form may be temporary, but class is permanent. India is the way to go,” he said at the event.

The market expert highlighted that India’s market capitalisation has compounded at nearly 14% annually in dollar terms over the last two decades, compared with around 7% for the US market. “Every five to six years, you double. That is the pace,” he added.

Why India creates more multibaggers

The MOFSL Chairman said his investing philosophy has always focused on finding businesses operating in fast-growing industries within fast-growing economies. Referring to an internal study inspired by Thomas Phelps’ book ‘100 to 1 in the Stock Market’, Agrawal noted that nearly 20% of companies in the NSE 500 delivered over 25% annualised returns for a decade — effectively becoming 10-baggers. The comparable figure in the S&P 500, he said, stood at just around 7%.

“Multi-bagging happens where growth is fastest. You get the maximum multi-baggers in the country which is growing fastest and in the industry which is growing fastest,” he said. Vision, courage and patience are the three things that act as the formula for identifying outsized winners, according to the market veteran. “Whenever you are hitting a big one, you are mostly alone. You need conviction to stay with it,” he added.

Investors often underestimate how compounding works over long periods, Agrawal said, adding that in a stock that delivers 100x returns over two decades, a disproportionate amount of wealth creation typically happens in the final few years. “You sit through 19 years because most of the compounding comes in the 19th and 20th year,” he said.

The Bharti Airtel bet that shaped his investing career

Raamdeo Agrawal reminisced about his early investment in Bharti Airtel. In 2003, after studying the economics of network businesses and speaking with Sunil Bharti Mittal, the market expert became convinced that India’s mobile revolution would create enormous value.

At the time, India had only around 50 million fixed-line phones for a population of more than one billion. Agrawal estimated Bharti Airtel could generate Rs 27,000–28,000 crore in profits over the following five years, even though its market capitalisation was only around Rs 5,000 crore.

He bought Bharti Airtel’s shares at around Rs 19–30 apiece, despite scepticism from peers and friends. “I was alone all the way through,” he recalled. While he sold some shares early under pressure, he held on to a significant portion as the stock multiplied several times over. His final exit came years later at around Rs 650, translating into roughly a 25-fold return.

The next generation of winners

Agrawal pointed out that India’s expanding capital markets ecosystem can create the next wave of multi-baggers. “We are adding nearly 3 million new customers every month…We already have more than 220 million demat accounts. By 2031–32, we could reach 500–600 million,” he said.

Rising retail participation will create opportunities across brokers, exchanges, asset managers, wealth platforms and depositories, he said, admitting to missing out on the sharp rally in BSE despite understanding the sector deeply.

“The stock went up almost 50 times, and I did not make a single paisa,” he said with a laugh.

Today’s quick commerce momentum is similar to Bharti Airtel in 2003
Agrawal drew parallels between India’s quick commerce industry and the early days of telecom. He said the firms operating in the segment are still in the heavy cash-burn phase, but the underlying network effects could eventually create very large businesses.

“This is a Bharti moment,” he said, referring to the potential scale of India’s quick commerce opportunity. He cited comments from global retail executives, including leadership at Walmart, describing India’s quick commerce ecosystem as a glimpse into the future of retail.

What Raamdeo Agrawal avoids completely

Despite his appetite for growth, Agrawal said that he maintains strict filters while evaluating businesses. He avoids companies generating return on equity below 20% and pays close attention to receivables cycles as an indicator of business quality.

“If return on equity is 9 or 10%, I do not even want to enter the meeting,” he said, adding that management quality remains his biggest filter. “They will go to hell and take you along,” he said, referring to promoters with compromised governance standards.
Agrawal also stressed the importance of visiting factories and observing operations first-hand instead of relying solely on management presentations.

Sensex at 3 lakh by 2036?

Agrawal remained bullish on India’s long-term macroeconomic trajectory, projecting that per capita income could double over the next six to seven years. The market veteran expects Sensex to touch 1.5 lakh by 2030 and potentially 3 lakh by 2036, driven by sustained earnings growth and rising participation in financial assets. “Three lakh in 12 years is more guaranteed than one-and-a-half lakh in six years,” he said. “That is how compounding works,” he said at the event.

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The March quarter for the year turned out to be a difficult period even for some of India’s most followed investors, as geopolitical tensions linked to the Iran conflict triggered a broad sell-off in equities. While the Nifty fell 13% during the quarter, several portfolios of marquee investors saw a much higher proportion of their holdings end in the red.

A review of portfolios of Mukul Agrawal, Ashish Kacholia, Vijay Kedia, Rekha Jhunjhunwala and Dolly Khanna shows that losses dominated across the board, with only a small fraction of stocks delivering gains.

Mukul Agrawal had the widest exposure among the group of marquee names, holding 65 stocks. Of these, only 5 stocks, or about 8%, ended the quarter in the green, while 60 stocks, or over 92%, declined. Apollo Pipes rose 41% during the quarter, while KRN Heat Exchanger gained 17% and J&K Bank advanced 10%.

Strides Pharma Science and AYM Syntex also posted modest gains. However, these gains were outweighed by widespread declines across industrial, real estate and specialty chemical names in the portfolio. Stocks like Vikran Engineering, Ajmera Realty slumped nearly 50% in just three months of the year.

Ashish Kacholia, another star investors closely followed by retail investors, held 34 stocks at the end of December quarter. Of these, only 5 stocks, or about 14.7%, delivering positive returns and 29 stocks, or over 85%, slipped into into losses.

Aeroflex Industries, in his portfolio, rallied the highest at 24%, while Advait Energy gained 16% and Jain Resource Recycling was up about 10%. At the same time, several consumption and small-cap names in his portfolio saw sharp declines, reflecting the broader pressure on high-beta segments. His stocks like Agarwal Industrial, Vikran Engineering and Zaggle Prepaid posted losses over 40%.

Rekha Jhunjhunwala’s portfolio appeared relatively more stable compared to peers, though it was still largely in the red. Out of 27 stocks, 2 stocks, or about 7.4%, ended with gains, while 25 stocks, or over 92%, declined. Karur Vysya Bank rose 10% during the quarter, while Star Health gained a marginal 0.5%. On the downside, several midcap names like Advent International, Raghav Productivity saw corrections over 40%.Vijay Kedia, who held 17 stocks as of December 2025 end, saw one of the highest concentrations of losses. Only 1 stock, or about 5.9%, ended in positive territory, while 16 stocks, or over 94%, declined during the quarter. Advait Energy Transitions was the sole gainer, rising 16%. However, most of the other holdings, particularly in manufacturing and niche industrial segments, saw steep corrections as risk appetite faded.

Dolly Khanna’s portfolio was the most impacted in terms of breadth of losses. She held 10 stocks, and only 1 stock, or 10%, delivered positive returns, while 9 stocks declined. Savera Industries was a rare light in the portfolio with 15% gain during the quarter. The rest of the portfolio, including several agro, sugar and chemical-linked companies, saw significant declines. The concentrated nature of her portfolio amplified the impact of the downturn.

The common pattern across all five investors was very few stocks delivered gains, and even those were largely isolated cases. The majority of holdings across portfolios fell, many by a wider margin than the benchmark indices.

The quarter also highlighted the vulnerability of mid- and small-cap stocks during periods of global uncertainty. The Nifty mid and smallcap indices declined over 10% this year. Portfolios with higher exposure to these segments saw sharper drawdowns, while those with some allocation to financials or relatively stable businesses managed to limit losses to an extent.

Overall, the March quarter showed that macro shocks tend to override stock-specific strengths in the short term. Even seasoned investors with diversified portfolios were not insulated from the sell-off, as the impact of geopolitical tensions spread across sectors and market caps.

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Ace investor Mukul Agrawal bought 20 lakh shares each, in two smallcap companies Tracxn Technologies and Laxmi India Finance on Monday via separate bulk deals. The deals were valued at Rs 6.6 crore and Rs 18.51 crore, respectively.

Tracxn Technologies bulk deal

The shares were bought at a price of Rs 33 per share, up 5.5% from Friday’s closing price of Rs 31.27. The stock finally closed at Rs 34.32 on the NSE, up by Rs 3.05 or 9.75%.

According to the BSE shareholding data, Agrawal held 20 lakh shares representing 1.88% equity in the company as on December 31, 2025.

Tracxn provides a consolidated and organised platform for private market data. Tracxn is a publicly traded company listed on the NSE and BSE since October 20, 2022. The company claims to serve over 1,500 clients in 50+ countries. Its clients include venture capital funds, private equity firms, corporates, universities and investment banks.

The stock is a market laggard and is down over 50% in the past 12 months. Tracxn Technologies shares have declined 14% in 2026, so far.

Tracxn Technologies’ market capitalization is around Rs 366 crore.

Laxmi India Finance

Agrawal bought Laxmi India Finance’s shares at a price of Rs 92.55 apiece, which is a 1.7% premium over the Friday closing price of Rs 90.97.

The stock today surged 10% to settle at Rs 100.50 on the NSE, up by Rs 9.53.

Agrawal held 20 lakh shares in the company as of December 31, 2025, which account for 3.83% equity.

Listed on August 5, 2025, Laxmi India Finance is a non-deposit taking non-banking financial company. As of September 30, 2024, our operational network spanned 139 branches in rural, semi-urban and urban areas in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Its product portfolio includes MSME loans, vehicle loans, construction loans and other lending products.

The company launched its initial public offering (IPO) in July at a price band of Rs 150 to Rs 158.

The stock is down 58% from its issue price.

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In a significant rejig of his stock portfolio, ace investor Mukul Mahavir Agrawal added two smallcaps in the quarter ended March 31, while trimming his stakes in three others. He may also have exited two smallcap stocks or brought his holdings down below 1% in them.

Shareholding of individual investors reflects in the ‘Shareholding Pattern’ of BSE listed companies on reaching 1% stake or above in the company.

Agrawal bought 1.80% stake in Dredging Corporation of India while shopping for 5.53% in Oriental Rail Infrastructure in the January-March quarter. Both stocks have delivered multibagger returns of 154% and 555%, respectively, in the last 12 months. In 2024 so far, their returns were 25% and 6%, respectively.

Agrawal trimmed his holding in smallcap Zen Technologies to 1.19% in Q4FY24 versus 1.34% in Q3FY24. The paring of stakes comes amid a strong rally of 219% in the past 12 months.

As for Arman Financial Services, the stake has been reduced by 27 bps to 3.82% from 4.09% in the December quarter. The cut comes amid a 21% year-to-date decline in stock price. The stock’s gains over a 1-year period stand at 37%.

Meanwhile, in Dhabriya Polywood, the stake at the end of the March quarter stood at 2.78% down from 3.85% in the three-month-period ending December 31, 2023. The smallcap scrip has delivered 71.60% returns in the past one year while delivering 20% in 2024. The celebrity investor is believed to have either exited JTEKT India and Gensol Engineering in the previous quarter or slashed his holding below 1%. In the former, Agrawal held 1.30% stake in the December quarter while in the latter, his share was to the tune of 1.51%. Agrawal booked profit in JTEKT India following a significant rally in the counter. Over a 1-year period, JTEKT rallied nearly 70%.

Meanwhile, Gensol Engineering has been a laggard witnessing a price erosion of 28% in the last one year. However, in 2025, it has managed gains of 15%.

As per the latest corporate shareholdings filed, Mukul Mahavir Prasad Agrawal publicly holds 54 stocks with a net worth of over Rs 5,276.6 crore according to Trendlyne data. The latest quarter trends could be missing since not all companies may have reported their shareholding data till now.

The other stocks held by him include Radico Khaitan, Surya Roshni, Prakash Pipes and Ceat.

Also Read: Rekha Jhunjhunwala trims stake in multibagger Canara Bank & a smallcap in March quarter

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It is an opportune time for all well-managed, large unlisted companies to go public, Motilal Oswal Financial Services’ Chairman Raamdeo Agrawal said on Saturday in the backdrop of a record 42 lakh demat accounts opening in December, which he termed as the biggest economic event that has happened in India after 1992.

Agrawal said that well-managed large unlisted companies would want to make their company live beyond themselves and it is only possible by listing the company and separating the management from the ownership and management of the company.

Agrawal was speaking at BCAS’ ReImagine 2024 event organised by Bombay Chartered Accountants Society (BCAS) which is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee. The three-day event on ReImagining concludes today.

This is the decade of the Indian capital market, he said as he urged the people to increase their allocation in equities.

He said this during a panel discussion on ‘Ride the Capital Market- Take the Bull by its Horn’ which also had Kotak AMC Managing Director Nilesh Shah and Deven Choksey, Managing Director at DRChoksey FinServ Pvt. Ltd.

Kotak AMC’s Shah said that India has a great chance of doing something fundamental in AI as about 30% to 35% of programming going into artificial intelligence has an Indian hand.At the same event on Friday, NSE’s MD CEO Ashish Chauhan had said that India will grow 10X from $10 trillion to $100 trillion in the next 50 years or even earlier.

“If the world is going to create $250 trillion of more wealth, and we have almost 18% of the total world population, and 20-22% of the young population, we might create 30% of total wealth,” Chauhan said.

Speaking on the role of technology he added that the new technology revolution will create more wealth in the next 50 years than it was created in the last 10,000 years in the world.

On the role of NSE, Chauhan said that one out of every three rupees in India comes out of NSE. He also boasted of NSE’s tech superiority over its other global peers. “In terms of the technology of transaction processing, there is no similar country in the world. On some days, we do 40-45% of all trades in the world at NSE.”

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MUMBAI – The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has granted approval for the appointment of Pramod Agrawal as the Chairman of BSE Ltd from January 17, 2024, the exchange said in a release.

Last week, the board of the exchange had approved the appointment of Agrawal as the chairman of the governing board as the term of current chairman S S Mundra ends on January 16.

In May last year, BSE had appointed Mundra, a retired deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, as the chairman of the bourse.

On Wednesday, shares of BSE ended nearly 4% down at Rs 2,311.75. The stock has been a star performer in 2023, giving investors a whopping 325% returns.

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With India being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it has the potential to reach $8 trillion by 2030-31, observed veteran investor Raamdeo Agrawal.

India is in a different growth cycle, where aggregate earnings continue to grow faster than expected. The September quarter saw India Inc’s earnings grow by 32% versus expectations of about 25-26%, he said.

Agrawal therefore remains bullish and sees potential for the market capitalisation to match India’s GDP by 2030.

In a recent industry summit, Agrawal predicted the benchmark Nifty50 index to double over the next five years and even swell by 4 times in 10 years.

Despite a rollercoaster journey, Nifty50 has given about 6% returns to investors so far in 2023.

If earnings grow in double digits annually on a sustainable basis, the market is also ought to grow at a similar pace, according to Agrawal.

“If earnings are going to grow at 15-20%, there’s no reason why markets will not grow at the same rate,” Agrawal, who is the Chairman of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said during a media meet here on Tuesday. While themes such as China+1, Make in India, urbanisation, healthcare infrastructure have gained a lot of traction since the pandemic, the one theme that Agrawal is extremely bullish on is digital transformation.

Agrawal expects digitally-powered businesses to grow exponentially in the current decade.

With the rising participation of retail investors and growing SIP book of mutual funds, the equity market veteran sees potential for the total dematerialised accounts to reach 200 million in the near future.

Keeping in mind the growth potential for the domestic economy and the markets, as a fund house, Motilal Oswal Asset Management is focussing on following “High Quality High Growth” investment strategy across its portfolios.

The fund house follows the philosophy of “QGLP” – Quality, Growth, Longevity, Price – across funds and portfolios

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Ace investor Mukul Mahavir Agrawal picked up 13 crore shares or 1.04% stake in Suzlon Energy in the quarter ended June, as per the latest shareholding pattern data available on the BSE. The shares on Friday hit 5% upper circuit on the BSE scaling their 52-week high of Rs 19.66.

Shareholding of individual investors reflects in the ‘Shareholding Pattern’ of BSE listed companies on reaching 1% stake or above in the company.

The Pune-headquartered company is a renewable energy solutions provider The company has presence in 17 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and America.

The stock has been in great momentum this week gaining more than 11% over the five trading sessions, significantly outperforming the S&P BSE Sensex which has given 0.94% returns during this time. The stock has also outperformed the sector with 2.55% returns given by S&P BSE Capital Goods index.

Suzlon has also given multibagger returns of 223% over a 1-year period as against 20% returned by the 30-stock Sensex. The 52-week low for this counter stands Rs 5.91, it hit on July 28, 2022.

Suzlon Energy will be announcing its June quarter earnings on July 25. The company reported a net loss of Rs 5.92 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2023 versus Rs 30.72 crore loss in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. In the December quarter the net loss stood at Rs 8.82 crore.

As per the latest corporate shareholdings filed, Mukul Mahavir Prasad Agrawal publicly holds 53 stocks with a net worth of over Rs 3,380 crore according to Trendlyne data. The latest quarter trends could be missing since not all companies may have reported their shareholding data till now.The other stocks held by him include Zen Technologies, Delta Corp, Allcargo Logistics among others.

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