M&G’s India portfolio is currently overweight in companies linked to real estate, hospitals, diagnostics, and auto components. These sectors, Pershad said, continue to offer long-term growth potential and benefit from strong structural demand.
At the same time, the fund has been gradually exiting traditional defensives. It is now more underweight on information technology services and consumer staples than at any point in the last two decades, he noted, citing weakening fundamentals and better relative opportunities elsewhere.
Despite staying fully deployed, Pershad said the fund remains liquid enough to respond to any meaningful price corrections. “Being fully deployed enforces discipline—if we want to buy, we have to sell something. And right now, we like our portfolio,” he said.
M&G continues to back active stock-picking in India, with a preference for companies that are closely tied to the domestic growth story, according to Pershad.
