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Massachusetts preregistration system to expand beyond mass COVID-19 vaccination sites

Gov. Charlie Baker says, however, that it's too soon to talk about "vaccine passports" and instead wants to focus on getting millions more vaccinated.

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  • Bitcoin Drops Below $50,000 Amid Tax and Momentum Concerns

    (Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin declined for the seventh time in eight days, extending losses after President Joe Biden was said to propose almost doubling the capital-gains tax for the wealthy.The slide pushed Bitcoin down as much as 5.8% to about $48,596 as it continued to lose momentum. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Tallbacken Capital Advisors LLC had recently warned there was potential for further downside after the largest cryptocurrency fell back from its record high of $64,870 on April 14 and took out key technical levels.“Bitcoin has slipped below the 50-day moving average support that it held sacrosanct through this rally,” said Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange. “It looks like there is more downside here.”Read more: Wall Street Starts to See Weakness Emerge in Bitcoin ChartsTax concerns may be weighing, too. U.S. investors in the digital asset, which has advanced more than 70% this year despite its recent pullback, already face a capital gains tax if they sell the cryptocurrency after holding it for more than a year. But the coin’s been one of the best-performing assets in recent years -- anyone who bought a year ago is sitting on a nearly 575% gain. For investors who bought in April 2019, it’s roughly 800%.“One of the biggest things you have to worry about is that the things with the biggest gains are going to be most susceptible to selling,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co. “It doesn’t mean people will dump wholesale, dump 100% of their positions, but you have some people who have huge money in this and, therefore, a big jump in the capital gains tax, they’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table.”The IRS has stepped up enforcement of tax collection on crypto sales. The agency -- which began asking crypto users to disclose transactions on their 2019 individual tax returns -- asks taxpayers whether they “received, sold, sent, exchanged or otherwise acquired any financial interest in any digital currency.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Sanjeev Gupta’s Father Has Moved From U.K. as Group Battles for Survival

    (Bloomberg) -- Parduman Gupta, father of embattled metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, has moved out of the U.K., just as the pair’s GFG Alliance teeters on the brink following the collapse of its largest lender Greensill Capital.The senior Gupta has changed his country of usual residence from Britain to India, according to several filings made over the past few weeks at Companies House, the business registry. He owns Simec Group, the branch of the business empire which deals in renewable energy, shipping and mining, and was founded by the magnate as an export-and-import house in India.It’s not clear where Parduman Gupta is currently, but a spokesman for Companies House said that a company director must list their country of residence, and that this “should correspond with their usual residential address.” A spokesman for GFG Alliance, a loose grouping of companies owned by the father and son, declined to comment.Sanjeev Gupta has also been absent for several months from the U.K., where GFG owns numerous steel and aluminum plants and employs around 5,000 people. He said on recent podcasts for GFG employees that he left the U.K. for Dubai before Christmas, and hasn’t returned since.“Dubai is the perfect location for me and my family to operate out of for now,” Gupta said on a April 16 podcast, citing the city’s time zone.But he said that he was keen to be on the move again. “As soon as Covid travel restrictions in the U.K. and Australia and Europe are lifted I will definitely be trying to get in front of the customers and employees around the world.”‘Very Opaque’GFG last month asked the U.K. government for a 170 million-pound ($235 million) bailout, but the request was rebuffed. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told a parliamentary committee last week that it would be “very irresponsible” to give taxpayers’ money to the group, describing it as “very, very opaque” and having “liabilities that nobody seems to have got to the bottom of.”GFG has borrowed about $5 billion from Greensill, and is desperately seeking fresh financing, which Sanjeev Gupta is coordinating from Dubai.Some progress has been made. Three lenders are in talks to refinance one of his Australian steel mills, while a private equity firm has positioned itself to buy two of the group’s aluminum plants.Still, other parts of the business are facing difficulties. Three French units were put into voluntary administration last week, while other parts of GFG in France and Belgium have sought protection from their creditors.Gupta said on the April 16 podcast that some of his U.K. assets were “struggling at the moment with the lack of funding.” He called on GFG employees to be “brave,” but warned of “some difficult decisions” to come.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Asian shares shake off U.S. tax worries, cryptocurrencies plunge

    SHANGHAI (Reuters) -A key gauge of Asian shares rose on Friday, supported by gains in China and a decision by the European Central Bank to maintain stimulus, while investors largely shrugged off the impact of a possible U.S. capital gains tax hike. The ECB's decision to leave policy on hold came despite its prediction of a strong rebound in the euro zone economy from mid-year as COVID-19 infections are brought under control. "There were a couple of subtle acknowledgements today that an upgrade to forecasts is likely coming at the June 10 meeting," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank.

  • Biden to float historic tax increase on investment gains for the rich

    President Joe Biden will roll out a plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, including the largest-ever increase in levies on investment gains, to fund about $1 trillion in childcare, universal pre-kindergarten education and paid leave for workers, sources familiar with the proposal said. The plan is part of the White House's push for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax system to make rich people and big companies pay more and help foot the bill for Biden's ambitious economic agenda. The proposal calls for increasing the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, the sources said this week.

  • Tata 'sues Liberty Steel over unpaid debts'

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  • Turkish Crypto Exchange Goes Bust as Founder Flees Country

    (Bloomberg) -- One of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges said it lacked the financial strength to continue operations, leaving hundreds of thousands of investors fearing their savings have evaporated as authorities sought to locate the company’s 27-year-old founder, who fled the country.Confusion reigned about how many users of the Thodex exchange were affected and how much money was at stake. In a statement from an unknown location, Thodex Chief Executive Officer Faruk Fatih Ozer promised to repay investors and to return to Turkey to face justice after he did. The government moved to block the company’s accounts and police raided its head office in Istanbul.Losses could be as high as $2 billion, according to Haberturk newspaper, and a lawyer for the victims said the money invested by about 390,000 active users had become “irretrievable.” Both figures have been disputed by Ozer. About 30,000 users have been impacted, he said in a statement on the company’s website on Thursday.While authorities and customers tried to work out the details of what happened, a senior official in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office called for rapid regulation of the crypto market. Globally, the surge in the prices of digital tokens has been accompanied by convictions and regulatory measures after various scams tied to trading platforms.The Turkish government should take action “as soon as possible,” Cemil Ertem, a senior economic adviser to Erdogan, told Bloomberg. “Pyramid schemes are being established. Turkey will undoubtedly carry out a regulation that’s in line with its economy but also by following global developments.”Alternative InvestmentsThodex was part of the cryptocurrency boom that has drawn in legions of Turks seeking to protect their savings from rampant inflation and an unstable currency. Inflation hit 16.2% in March, more than three times the central bank’s target of 5%. The Turkish lira has weakened 10% against the dollar this year, its ninth consecutive year of losses.The government spent a massive $165 billion in foreign-exchange reserves over the past two years, Erdogan revealed on Wednesday, part of a futile effort to prop up the national currency. Concern about the country’s dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, which are negative when money borrowed by the government from private banks via swap agreements are factored in, has fueled concern about both lira and dollar deposits -- and pushed savers into alternative investment vehicles.Last Friday, the volume of trade in Turkish crypto markets tripled to over $1.2 billion from a week earlier, according to data published by coingecko.com, which tracks data on price, volume and market value on crypto markets. That compares with an average daily trading volume in the Turkish stock market’s benchmark index of about $3.1 billion.“One can establish a crypto exchange with just 50,000 liras (about $6,000) in capital,” Oguz Evren Kilic, a lawyer representing Thodex users, said by phone. “There’s a huge regulatory gap in this field.”Ozer didn’t respond to multiple calls to his mobile phone. The company’s call center also didn’t pick up calls. Bedirhan Oguz Basibuyuk, Thodex’s lawyer, told Bloomberg he doesn’t know where Ozer is but that he’s not in Turkey. Demiroren News Agency reported that he fled to Albania on Tuesday, publishing what it said was a photo of him at Istanbul’s airport.Dogecoin CampaignLast month, Thodex initiated a campaign to boost membership by offering millions of free Dogecoins to new registrants. Its website says 4 million of the coins were distributed, though many people have taken to social media to complain they never received them.“I was born as one of the three siblings of a civil servant,” Ozer said in his statement, adding that he’s a high-school dropout. As the company ran into financial trouble, he said he thought about either committing suicide or giving himself up to authorities, but both of those options meant clients’ assets would never be retrieved.“So I decided to stay alive and fight, work and repay my debts to you,” he said. “The day I repay all my debt, I will return to my country and give myself in to justice.”(Updates with new lede, government agency action, details throughout.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Malaysia Sells World’s 1st Sovereign Dollar Sustainability Sukuk

    (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia became the first country to sell a dollar Sukuk linked to sustainable activities, adding to a growing number of issuers turning to debt financing for environmental and social projects.The Southeast Asian country priced $800 million of 10-year sustainability Islamic finance notes on Wednesday, Malaysia’s finance ministry said. The deal also included a $500 million 30-year tranche. The offering was oversubscribed by 6.4 times.Sustainable debt issuance rose 29% last year to a record $732 billion, according to figures from BloombergNEF. Indonesia sold green debt that complies with religious principles in 2018, making it the first country in the world to issue such securities, according to a United Nations Development Programme report.“Demand for ESG or sustainability-linked bonds continues to gain traction while there is still a limited supply” of such issuance from Southeast Asia, said Winson Phoon, head of fixed-income research at Maybank Kim Eng Securities in Singapore. “Adding the sustainability label helps widen further the investor base.”Spreads on both parts of the deal tightened during marketing, and the sustainability Sukuk sold at 50 basis points over Treasuries compared with initial price guidance of around 90 basis points. The deal resulted in the lowest-ever yield and spread for a U.S.-dollar Sukuk issuance by Malaysia, the finance ministry said.Malaysia is an infrequent issuer in overseas bond markets, last selling dollar debt in 2016. Its existing U.S. currency notes have a longer duration than Asian credit more broadly, which made them vulnerable to a selloff last quarter as yields spiked. They’ve since recouped some losses as interest rates retreated.Like governments around the globe, Malaysia has been tackling the impact of the pandemic, and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a 20 billion ringgit ($4.9 billion) stimulus package last month that included discounts on power bills, tax breaks and cash aid to the poor.Malaysia’s gross domestic product may expand 6% to 7.5% in 2021, its central bank said last month. That’s potentially slower than its earlier projection of 6.5%-7.5% growth, but still ahead of many of its neighbors.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Goldman Says Get Ready for Higher Real Yields, Bond Volatility

    (Bloomberg) -- Get ready for a fresh volatility-threatening selloff in a corner of the Treasury market that holds big sway over global risk assets.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is projecting the U.S. economic revival will send longer-dated real yields in the world’s biggest bond market higher by some 40 basis points back toward the pre-Covid business cycle.“The key driver of longer-dated rates volatility from here might be real yields,” said Christian Mueller-Glissmann, the bank’s managing director of portfolio strategy and asset allocation. “They are too low to reflect the fundamental picture. We are entering the incredible strong second quarter where we expect year-on-year global growth to be among the strongest on record.”Before this month’s head-scratching reversal, a bearish repricing across the Treasury curve this year has been taking Wall Street by storm. The thinking goes that the market risks being caught off-guard if rates adjusted for inflation stage a spirited recovery.All that has the potential to undercut expensive stock and credit valuations while intensifying the competition for capital -- even if monetary conditions remain historically accommodative.Read more: Real Yields’ Rise Is Canary in the Coal Mine for Risk AssetsAs the pandemic fallout spurs the Federal Reserve to double down on stimulus, 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities remain deep in negative territory at around minus 0.79%. These levels -- far below the long-term average -- may well be justified given still-contained core inflation but they look jarring given the U.S. economy is expected to grow by 6.3% this year.After turning positive in February, market expectations for five-year real yields in five years time are currently at 0.31%, around 35 basis points below the decade average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“Real yields are still 40 to 50 basis points below the average in the five years before the Covid-19 crisis, when investors were generally quite bearish on long-term growth prospects,” said Mueller-Glissmann. “This repricing does not all have to happen near-term, it might happen over several quarters.”Volatility in the rates market therefore has room to run “and it could drive at least temporary indigestion for other assets,” he added. At the same time, investors are entering a world of economic uncertainty, with the health of the business cycle and the central bank’s reaction function going forward big unknowns. How fast will the labor market roar back? What will the structural impact of the pandemic be on inflation dynamics? On those questions and more, there’s a division in market views on Wall Street, with year-end yield forecasts for 10-year Treasuries ranging between 1% and 2.5%.To hedge portfolios, the Goldman strategist is telling clients to trade options on interest rates that position for higher yields, known as payer swaptions, or by going long Treasury volatility.“The market has built up decent amount growth, inflation, and Fed rate hike expectations,” he said. “If all of those expectations unravel, volatility could be more elevated. Yields at current levels can generate more potential for rate volatility in both directions than when they were near zero.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Stock market news live updates: Stocks sink after report says Biden will propose higher capital gains tax on the wealthy

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  • Dow profit surges as prices for chemicals soar on Texas freeze

    Dow Inc's current-quarter revenue forecast was more than $1 billion above expectations after the company crushed first-quarter estimates on surging prices for its chemicals from tighter supply following a winter freeze in Texas. Prices jumped 14% in the first quarter from the fourth, helped by gains in consumer packaging and polyurethanes, or flexible foam, used in furniture and bedding, as the supply squeeze came amid demand recovery in some of Dow's end-markets. "Despite supply constraints, we saw demand growth as the economic recovery continued to broaden, most notably in packaging, construction, mobility, electronics and consumer durables end-markets," Chief Executive Officer Jim Fitterling said.

  • Ant Group's money market fund shrinks in the first quarter

    Ant Group's money market fund Yu'e Bao shrank in the first quarter of 2021, according to Tianhong Asset Management Co Ltd, which manages the fund. The net asset value of Yu'e Bao stood at 972.4 billion yuan ($149.92 billion) at end of the first quarter, according to the fund's Q1 report on Thursday, down 18.3% from that of 1.19 trillion yuan at end of 2020. The drop came as regulatory pressure mounted on Jack Ma's Ant Group.

  • Top Forecaster Sees Aussie Rising to 85 U.S. Cents by Next Year

    (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar may climb to 85 U.S. cents within a year as commodity prices hold firm and the greenback retreats, according to the currency’s top forecaster.The Aussie is on track to recapture the 80 cents handle in the coming months, with the dollar expected to weaken as U.S. exceptionalism fades, said Ray Attrill at National Australia Bank Ltd., the most accurate Aussie forecaster in the first quarter in Bloomberg rankings.“This is a view heavily contingent on commodity prices remaining firm, risk sentiment holding up, and a related softening in the dollar,” Attrill said.The bets on the Aussie reflect confidence that the global economy is on the mend as commodities ranging from oil to iron ore push higher on signs of a recovery in demand. But not everyone shares that optimism, with asset managers extending short positions on the currency into a fourth week as at mid-April.The Aussie traded around 77 cents on Thursday and last reached the 85 mark in December 2014.The main risk to NAB’s call is if the renewed spike in virus cases “extends to a new infection wave in Europe, which runs ahead of rising vaccination rates and necessitates fresh large-scale economic lockdowns,” Attrill said.“Unless or until this risk eventuates, we continue to view any dips in AUD/USD back to the early April lows beneath 0.76 as buying opportunities,” he said.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Netflix says Disney had nothing to do with its underwhelming quarter

    Netflix added just 4 million new subscribers this quarter, compared to the 6 million it expected. The streaming service blamed Covid-related production delays leading to a "lighter" than usual content slate.

  • New York City sues Exxon, BP, Shell in state court over climate change

    The lawsuit comes after a federal appeals court this month rejected the city's effort to hold five major oil companies liable to help pay the costs of harm caused by global warming. The lawsuit said Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell and industry group the American Petroleum Institute "have systematically and intentionally misled consumers" through fuel sales at branded stations as "cleaner" and "emissions-reducing" while not disclosing climate impacts.

  • Wall Street Starts to See Weakness Emerge in Bitcoin Charts

    (Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin has yet to recover from its unexplained weekend swoon, and now the investing public is on edge about the notoriously volatile token’s next move. Enter the chart watchers.Noting that “a chart is a chart is a chart,” Tallbacken Capital Advisors’s Michael Purves -- weighing in on crypto for virtually the first time -- sent a note Wednesday with a technical analysis of the coin’s trading patterns. Bitcoin’s recent highs weren’t confirmed by its relative strength index, among other things, and its upward momentum is fading, he said.“From purely a technical perspective, the bullish case looks highly challenged here in the near term,” after its recent rally, wrote Purves, chief executive officer at the firm.Purves’s decision to comment is the latest sign that Bitcoin has become too big for Wall Street to ignore. As more firms allow customers to dabble in the asset and more institutional money is tied to its performance, chart watchers are capitulating and now lending their expertise to the growing batch of analysis.Earlier, JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou noted that the last few times they witnessed such negative price action in Bitcoin, buyers returned in time to prevent deeper slumps. This time, they’re worried.If the largest cryptocurrency isn’t able to break back above $60,000 soon, momentum signals will collapse, the strategists wrote in a note Tuesday. It’s likely traders including Commodity Trading Advisers (CTAs) and crypto funds were at least partly behind the buildup of long Bitcoin futures in recent weeks, as well as the unwind in past days, they said.“Over the past few days Bitcoin futures markets experienced a steep liquidation in a similar fashion to the middle of last February, middle of last January or the end of last November,” the strategists said. “Momentum signals will naturally decay from here for several months, given their still elevated level.”In those three previous instances, the overall flow impulse was strong enough to allow Bitcoin to quickly break out above the key thresholds, yielding further buildups in position by momentum traders, JPMorgan noted.“Whether we see a repeat of those previous episodes in the current conjuncture remains to be seen,” the strategists said. The likelihood it will happen again seems lower because momentum decay seems more advanced and thus more difficult to reverse, they added. Flows into Bitcoin funds also appear weak, they said.Bitcoin rose as high as $64,870 around the time of the Nasdaq listing of Coinbase Global Inc., but has retreated back to $55,000. The cryptocurrency is still up about 90% year-to-date.The coin, down five of the last six sessions, is struggling to overtake its 50-day moving average around $56,810. For many chartists, that’s a bearish indicator since it tends to determine price momentum trends. Should Bitcoin be unable to breach its short-term trend line, it could move lower and test the $50,000 level, about a 10% decline from where it’s currently trading. The next area of support would be its 100-day moving average around $49,208. That would signify a 11% retreat from Wednesday’s trading levels.Tallbacken’s Purves, who says the coin’s 2017 breakout and subsequent decline is a useful case study, also points to Bitcoin’s daily MACD signal -- or the moving average convergence divergence gauge -- which has turned bearish in the intermediate-term. And its performance is still correlated to Cathie Wood’s uber-popular ARK Innovation ETF.“Trading Bitcoin on the bullish side right now does not appear to have favorable risk-reward and if you have made profits, it seems like a good time to go to the sidelines for now,” Purves wrote.To be sure, he said, it’s difficult to conclude how much further it could decline. Institutional buyers will be key.“While upside momentum is clearly looking challenged here, it is inconclusive how much downside risk remains,” he wrote. “It is entirely possible that Bitcoin could simply consolidate in a range for some time.”Bitcoin fell 3.2% to $54,996 on Wednesday. Smaller and alternative coins that had run up in recent days also suffered declines, with Dogecoin -- the poster-child for crypto risk-taking -- declining roughly 15% to trade around 31 cents. That’s down from a high of 42 cents the day prior, according to CoinMarketCap.com.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • China’s Booming Economy Is Fueling Alternative Yuan Trades

    (Bloomberg) -- Optimism over China’s economy is fueling some alternative bets in the foreign-exchange market.Buy the yuan against the Singapore dollar and yen on expectations that China’s growth would outperform the region, analysts say. The upbeat view has boosted the Bloomberg CFETS RMB Index, which tracks the Chinese currency’s movement against 24 trading-partners, to its highest in three weeks.While betting on the yuan against the dollar -- as China recovered from the pandemic quicker -- yielded about 7% in 2020, both currencies are more or less moving in lockstep this year as the U.S. economy starts to rebound. The alternative strategies are also a reflection of how Wall Street is increasingly positioning the Chinese currency as a global play, with banks seeking more market-making opportunities.The yuan is likely to remain strong against the basket of currencies, according to Mitul Kotecha, chief emerging-market Asia and Europe strategist at TD Securities in Singapore. “We think China is keen to maintain some relative outperformance of CNY on a trade-weighted basis. The PBOC has fixed CNY stronger than expected 16 out of the last 20 days, which is a change from recent months.”The recommendations are tied to how the yuan trades against its partners, such as the euro and the yen, in the basket. Trades against other currencies though may still be executed in two legs via the dollar. The Bloomberg replica of the CFETS RMB Index is up 0.4% so far this week, set for its biggest gain since the period ended March 5.Citigroup Inc.’s strategist Gaurav Garg recommends long positions in offshore yuan against the Singapore dollar on expectations that China’s official CFETS RMB Index may rise further due to the nation’s strong trade balance. The currency pair tracks the index move “relatively well,” Garg wrote in a note this week.For Scotiabank’s Qi Gao, he prefers trading the offshore yuan against the Japanese yen. Better vaccine rollout in the European Union is expected to boost the euro, and hence the Chinese currency, due to their close correlation.So far this month, the yen and the Singapore dollar have risen against offshore yuan.Another way to benefit from expectations for a stronger yuan is through the carry trade, according to Bloomberg Intelligence strategist Stephen Chiu. The baht can be used as a funding currency to invest in offshore yuan, with Thailand expected to keep rates low for longer as its tourism-reliant economy takes longer to recover from the pandemic, he said.(Updates with latest move in Bloomberg CFETS RMB Index in fifth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Fidelity, Invesco Look to Buy Into India’s Virus-Led Stock Slump

    (Bloomberg) -- Even as traders in India fret over how much more pain the nation’s uncontrolled coronavirus surge will inflict on local stocks, some seasoned investors are getting ready to dip their toes back into the market.Concerns that a fresh round of lockdown-like rules triggered by the new virus wave will derail India’s nascent economic recovery have made the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex Asia’s worst performer in April, bringing it on the verge of technical correction this week. Weakening sentiment has also seen foreign funds turn net sellers of local shares after a six-month buying spree.While there’s no denying that the outbreak and its financial and humanitarian implications remain the key focus for market watchers, some long-term investors from Fidelity International and Invesco are already seeking opportunities to add stocks. Progress in India’s vaccination campaign and relatively less-disruptive lockdown measures are seen offering some support to Asia’s third-largest economy and its equity market.“We think that the resurgence of Covid-19 is short-term concern. We do not expect large-scale lockdowns as policymakers take a more localized approach to controlling the resurgence,” said Sukumar Rajah, director of portfolio management at Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity. “We continue to be positive in the Indian equity markets and continue to identify bottom-up opportunities based on our criteria of quality, sustainability and growth,”A few other money managers are echoing similar views as the market’s recent pullback has brought valuations down from the record highs seen earlier in the year. The Sensex is down about 8% from an all-time high in February -- a 10% slide would mark a technical correction.“A couple of months ago, we did have a view that market is pricing in too many positives, since then we have seen earnings upgrades and valuation has corrected,” said Jitendra Gohil, head of India equity research at Credit Suisse Wealth Management. “We are positive on the market and are recommending investors to buy on this weakness. Our house view is that the recovery will be very sharp in the second half.”This new wave of virus cases may delay India’s recovery, but it is unlikely to derail it, according to Fitch Ratings, which affirmed India’s sovereign debt rating at BBB-, the lowest investment grade score.The Sensex is little changed so far in 2021 after having climbed in each of the previous five years. The gauge has surged 85% from its low in March 2020 -- when global equity markets took the biggest hit from the pandemic -- beating a 71% jump in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional equities.“We will be selective and cautious in the short term, but any correction in the market will provide a buying opportunity,” said Amit Goel, a portfolio manager at Fidelity International.” “We continue to be optimistic on the economy and equities over the medium to long term, driven by structural drivers of growth such as strong demographics, under-penetration of consumer goods and services, increasing urbanisation, and growth in the educated workforce.”Taking ProfitSome are more cautious than others as India reported 314,835 new infections on Thursday, the world’s biggest one-day jump in coronavirus cases ever. The country’s health system has been pushed to breaking point, with hospitals reporting shortages of everything from intensive care beds to medical oxygen.Bodies piling up at crematoriums and burial grounds across the nation are sparking concerns that the death toll from a ferocious new Covid-19 wave may be much higher than official records.Aberdeen Standard Investments says that while the surge in infections could trigger stricter lockdowns if the situation worsens, which will have a knock-on impact on the re-opening of the economy and recovery prospects.“We have been nimble in terms of taking some profit off the table or topping up our positions where we see opportunity to do so,” said Kristy Fong, senior investment director for Asian equities at Aberdeen Standard.She also added however that in the longer term, several trends favor India: the presence of many of Asia’s most successful companies that have been tried and tested by prior crises and a growing middle class that is increasingly affluent.For many funds, their optimism is also stemming from expectations of a strong recovery in corporate earnings. Analysts have boosted their 12-month forward profit estimates for Sensex members by around 14% so far this year, about double the rise seen for MSCI Asia Pacific constituents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“We continue to see good earnings growth potential from both near and longer-term perspectives that will be supportive of a strong Indian equity market,” said Rajah of Franklin Templeton.READ: BofA Expects Near-Term Nifty Correction, Gains By Year EndShekhar Shekhar Sambhshivan, an investment director at Invesco, takes comfort from the fact that factories have been running at “decent” capacity during the current wave of infections.His team, meanwhile, has turned to defensive stocks to wade through near-term volatility. It reduced exposure to consumer discretionary stocks in the past month as it sees family spending getting affected, but raised holdings of pharmaceutical and information technology shares.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.