While Indian markets might temporarily be on a slippery slope amid significant foreign outflows, geopolitical tension and rising concerns if India is lagging behind in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, the country’s structural growth drivers remain intact, feels D-Street’s top bulls like Ramesh Damani and Sunil Singhania.

Speaking at a fireside session during the Groww India Investor Festival 2026 in Mumbai, both investors urged retail participants to ignore short-term market noise and stay focused on long-term wealth creation through disciplined investing.

“We have become used to markets delivering 15-20 percent returns every year after COVID. Markets do not move in a straight line,” Damani said, cautioning investors against drawing conclusions from short-term corrections or temporary underperformance.

Referring to past market cycles, Damani said benchmark indices across global markets have frequently moved sideways for long stretches, even while fundamentally strong companies continued to steadily create substantial shareholder value beneath the broader market’s muted performance.

“When I started my investing journey, the Sensex was below 1,000. Today it is above 80,000. There is no reason to believe India’s next 10-20 years will not continue to create massive wealth,” he said.

Addressing concerns over persistent foreign institutional investor outflows and India lagging peers such as Korea, Taiwan and the US in recent months, Damani argued that fears of a slowdown in domestic investor participation were overstated.

“Whenever foreigners sell, someone is buying those stocks. Domestic investors understand Indian businesses best, and they are backing Indian companies with conviction,” he said.FIIs have offloaded domestic equities worth Rs 2.06 lakh crore in 2026, remaining net sellers for the third successive month-to-date. They have sold shares worth Rs 14,231 crore, so far this month. In less than five months, foreign investment outflow has surpassed 2025 figures of Rs 1.66 lakh crore.

Also read: FIIs sell over Rs 2 lakh crore worth of Indian equities in 2026. What lies ahead?

Nifty is down over 7% on an year-to-date basis even as its Asian peers like Shanghai Composite (4%), Nikkei 225 (21%) and Kospi (74%) have outperformed the headline index. Its Wall Street rivals like Dow (2.5%) and Nasdaq Composite (13%) have also fared better.

Echoing a similar sentiment, Abakkus Asset Manager Founder Sunil Singhania said India’s economic model remains fundamentally stronger because of its consumption-led growth engine, though he acknowledged that India has not yet emerged as a dominant player in sectors such as semiconductors and deep technology.

“There is no doubt that several global companies have done phenomenally well in AI and semiconductors. But consumption and people ultimately sustain economies, and India remains one of the strongest long-term consumption stories globally,” Singhania said.

Both investors repeatedly stressed the importance of patience and compounding, warning retail investors against chasing speculative returns or shifting between trending asset classes.

“There is no secret to wealth creation. The real secret is compounding,” Damani said during the audience interaction, adding that investors should focus on quality businesses and allow investments time to grow.

Sectoral opportunities

Damani remains bullish on defence, infrastructure, logistics and energy-linked businesses, arguing they could emerge as long-term beneficiaries in an increasingly fragmented geopolitical environment.

“The world has changed. Every country now wants stronger self-defence and supply-chain independence,” he said, adding that investors would need to reposition portfolios for a changing global order.

Asset allocation: Gold/silver

The two investors also pushed back against the growing retail fascination with gold and silver following the sharp rally in precious metals.

Singhania called gold and silver as non-productive assets while emphasising the importance of equities, referring to them as growing assets. He recommended only limited allocation towards precious metals.

(Disclaimer: The recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)

Raymond, a diversified group which will have three listed entities in its fold after demerger of lifestyle and real estate verticals, is looking for a stabilised growth of 15 per cent from sales along with 15-20 per cent of pre-tax earnings, Chairman & Managing Director Gautam Hari Singhania said. Singhania expects Raymond Lifestyle to be listed this week, the entity which will house apparel-related businesses of the Raymond group, including its apparel brands, garmenting, suiting, shirting, and wedding fabric, along with its retail business — The Raymond Shop and Ethnix.

The nearly 100-year-old group has started the demerging process for its fast-growing real estate business. Once the process is complete, it will have three listed verticals — real estate, lifestyle and engineering — remaining with the main listed entity.

Singhania expects its real estate vertical to be listed by July or August next year and each of the three listed verticals will be governed by their independent board and chart their growth strategies.

“We would have three separate companies by the same time next year, with their own governance, their own management, own structures. That’s the best way to move forward,” Singhnia told PTI.

When asked about the growth, he said: “Each business will have its own strategies, whereas as a group, we would like to do at least 15 per cent a year, organically and 15 to 20 per cent EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).” Moreover, Raymond is now a debt-free organisation, and taking advantage it will also be in a position to pursue inorganic growth, he added. Sharing the expansion plans of the Raymond Lifestyle business, Singhania said: “We plan to open about 800 to 900 stores over the next three years. We would like to double our EBITDA over the next three years. There are many new segments we want to get into.” Similarly, real estate vertical, which started business with its Thane projects can have “explosive growth”. The company is doing four projects under its GS series, of which construction of one has been started and for the rest three will start soon.

“Bombay is going to get developed. As Bombay is developed, there are more and more opportunities. I am very optimistic about. Real estate can have actually explosive growth,” he said.

While in the engineering auto segment, it also has a “big opportunity” in engineering, auto and aerospace.

“So I think we have got three strong businesses, and that’s where we are going forward,” said Singhania.

In the Lifestyle business, Singhania is looking at the premiumisation trend and the growing wedding market, which is creating huge opportunities.

On being asked as to whether in the lifestyle business, Raymond has plans to enter into adjacent categories, Singhania said “Right now our focus is sleepwear, which we have just entered into the market. We are doing innerwear. We have several other categories around the angle.”

This year, Raymond Lifestyle will open 300 exclusive brand outlets. “So moving forward, there is a huge growth opportunity,” he said.

Raymond has a unit in Ethiopia, which primarily services US market, which is also doing well.

“But we are also looking at the GCC countries and Saudi Arabia, enhancing our distribution, as the large Indian population is in those markets. And we believe that we can enter those markets,” he said, adding, “We have recruited a senior person now to go and focus on that market.”

Raymond already has 50 outlets in the Middle East and plans to increase that.

Raymond is the largest integrated textile company in the world and exports its suits to more than 60+ countries including the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and the Middle East.

For the financial year ended March 2024, Raymond’s consolidated revenue was Rs 9,286 crore.