The viciousness of COVID-19 second wave has taken everyone by surprise except the market, said Punita Kumar Sinha, managing partner of Pacific Paradigm Advisors, on Tuesday.

Dalal Street has managed to stay rangebound during the COVID-19 second wave and largely traded in a range.

Speaking in an interview with CNBC-TV18, she said, “The viciousness of the second wave has taken everybody by surprise but not the market. The market seems to be still holding as if the economy is recovering, which it is, and the markets are signalling still that there will be a recovery and this too shall pass.”

“I still think there is liquidity, valuations and select companies are still attractive and investors have to find assets other than US markets which have been one of the best performing asset classes today with strongest growth momentum,” she said.

On emerging markets, Sinha said, “Emerging markets taking a hit because the second wave has been quite bad in some of the countries like India, Latin America but at some point that will make the valuations a bit more attractive for investors to relook at these markets.”

“Emerging markets are places where there is more value compared to the US markets. So US investors, in particular, will need to look outside the US and that would mean that countries like India if there is any correction based on the experience of investors across COVID would find that it’s a good time to get in and buy,” she added.

Sinha further said that pharma is a long-term secular theme and therefore, would continue to stay invested in the pharma space.

For the entire interview, watch the video

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)