S. Naren On Small Cap Risk, The AI Liquidity Suck & Why He Likes Banks & Insurance | CNBC TV18



ICICI Prudential AMC’s S. Naren explains why liquidity is becoming an increasingly important variable for Indian equities. Global capital is being pulled towards the US AI trade even as a heavy domestic pipeline of IPOs, block deals and fresh equity supply absorbs money at home.

Naren says smallcaps remain expensive and further strong returns increasingly depend on flows staying robust. He finds large-cap valuations relatively more attractive, though earnings-growth expectations remain moderate. Among sectors, he likes banks and insurance, calling insurance a contrarian opportunity at current levels.

He also explains why he continues to emphasise asset allocation, why he would own gold as part of a portfolio rather than as a standalone aggressive bet, and why investors may be under-allocating to debt and fixed income.

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45 Comments

  1. FII need any kind of directional market to make big money……now they are making it…..by staying short……still the market is not oversold….
    Every time it took support prior to being oversold…..this time if it becomes oversold in next few months……it will be good for longterm. Till then sit on cash

  2. Oil price, AI story and Expensive are not just the reason, but silent reasons are the TAX on FII. STT, Dividend Stock, STGC and LTCG are not joke for Foreign investors. They have option to invest elsewhere, so why will they invest in India like stupid?

  3. It is SIP investors choice to invest in his small and mid cap funds, so let his SIP investors suffer

    He is in pain why not invest in debt, till they invest in debt, his "growth oriented fund managers" will keep diverting money into ridiculous valuation companies through IPO, FPO, BULK DEALS against his liking

    So, problem is SIP investors choosing to invest in equities, not debt
    😂😂😂😂😂

  4. Naren is saying that large number of IPO, FPO, BLOCK DEALS are automatically stealing money from his SIP funds

    Why won't foreign companies list in India as if listing automatically takes money from mutual funds as his colleagues who are growth oriented, they overwrite his wisdom and invest in these ridiculous IPO, BLOCK DEALS?

    WHAT A SCAMMER!!!

    😂😂😂😂😂

  5. Very poor anchoring.. you vaguely frame the problem and when Naren tries to correct, you immediately jump and start interrupting him. Come on! He is an industry veteran and one of the more balanced voices in India markets. Let him speak!

  6. So cheap ! I am also against joining the current IPO bandwagon. However, the anchor clearly had an agenda to force words out of Naren against IPOs. Most likely, it is flex muscles to get advertisement from the IPO issuing companies. Thanks Naren, for keeping viewer's interest in mind, which was actually the anchor's job.

  7. I think the dissonance is – the Anchors are asking for Naren's view on the equity markets. And the simple answer, no one knows everything about the market
    Naren's response is, he doesn't know what markets will do, and hence best option for investors is unconstrained investing and Asset Allocation products.

  8. Dnt bring S Narendra, 2 years back he was the reason for the small caps to go down , he went on a business news channel and and started saying small cap is in bubble ,since he does not want retail investors to make money with out paying him commission.

  9. Can you please let Naren speak? What’s with the constant interrupting? Regarding debt fuds, the government's tax policy has really killed safe investments by removing indexation benefits via the CII. Debt investors take on duration, credit, and liquidity risks, yet now all debt investments are taxed at the individual's income tax slab rate like it is SBI FD. How can anyone invest in this high inflation era in Debt fund? Arbitrage funds were doing okay, but then the government kept increasing the STT every few years and CAS added in Aug/2026 made generating returns even harder for these funds. This constant tax tweaking, without giving any inflation benefits to investors, is why people are avoiding debt investments which used to be much safer for small and retired investors. Now, everyone is forced to take risks in equity or even hybrid funds, like the ICICI BAF, which has given just a 2% return in the last 1 year. That is how volatile the market has become even for hybrid funds like BAFs which are equity heavy and we cant time the market.

  10. The issue is INDIAN Economy IS highly OIL DEPENDENT.., SOftware is disrupted. Like KOREA TAIWAN we have fallen behind in AI TRADE and memory chips. CEMENT STEEL FMCG PAINTS TELECOM ALL have growth peaked out. supply is huge and investors wont get high returns in these sectors. WE NEED AI MEMORY CHIPS SEMI CONDUCTORS SECTORS.. FUTURISTIC COMPANIES HIGH GROWTH. WE WANT INNOVATIVE COMPANIES LIKE APPLE NVIDIA META GOOGLE AMAZON……IN INDIA

  11. Reema what kind of questions are these? You're asking him for "gut feeling" and getting aggressive over his answers?
    Quite a disrespectful session, and pointless quarrels. This were the same kind of (gut feeling) questions to Samir Arora and he got visibly annoyed on air

    Also not one single question or thoughts about the 10 Year crossing 5%? Guys that is the single most important indicator as of today, and would've loved Naren's thoughts about that

  12. .Mr Naren is One egoistic stubborn fellow who told Last year that midcap and small caps will not give any return for next 20 years 😂😂😂 because of this joker statement market fell by overreacting too much…. Look at how he is escaping a straight question and beating around The bush on equity returns. no use for retail investors with This kind of fund managers as they don't give any meaningful advise….his fund performance is pathetic that's why he is frustrated 😂😂

  13. The lady anchor seems particularly biased the nifty returns were superb till almost 2012 , barring the breakdown in 2008. I do not understand where they get their data from. Mr. Naren is spot on with his asset allocation.

  14. Absolutely terrible anchors. Can't even speak properly and then keep interrupting guests. You ask useless questions then what answers are you expecting to get.

  15. Obviously some grilling is required for funds they managing. Please make it. So they have some sense of responsibility. Naren was still good. Others were always bull mode. Please call them and grill.

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