Even God Can’t Save You Now: Shankar Sharma

Shankar Sharma of First Global is a master of timing and ceremony. He chose the moment well to make a comeback after his doomsday prophecy in April 2013 spread terror and panic amongst the investing masses.

Now that the markets have plunged a couple of hundreds points, the moment was perfect for Shankar Sharma to stand up and remind the disbelievers about the potency of his prophecy. Also, in case the bird-brained ones didn’t get the message, Shankar Sharma wore a dark red shirt to drive home the message that more blood will be on the streets.

Shankar Sharma kept a straight and grim face though he allowed himself the liberty of a quick “I told you so” smirk.

“Equity investors in India had an amazing opportunity to exit their positions in April. If you didn’t take it, then even god cannot help you” he said in his rich baritone, sending a icy chill down the spine of terror-stricken investors.

Udayan Mukherjee, who was interviewing him, was visibly shaken. “How much of a fall do you see in the market from here? How ugly do you see it getting?” Udayan Mukherjee asked, his voice trembling.

Shankar Sharma paused for a moment as if to prepare the listeners for the worst. “It is going to be quite ugly” he said in a soft voice.

“Whenever a big move happens to break a trend which is either a bear market becoming a bull market or vice-versa then moves are swift, moves are ugly and they are almost always supported with data. The data across the board for EMs has been terrible to say the least. You look at Brazil’s data, Russia’s data, China’s data, India’s data it has been across the board very, very bad. You are seeing rating downgrades happen. Brazil was downgraded. India may also get downgraded, China was downgraded“, he continued.

Udayan Mukherjee had a glazed look in his eyes. He was clearly spaced out, not able to comprehend the magnitude of Shankar Sharma’s prophecies.

Shankar Sharma continued, undeterred “The trade has gone back to being long US and short EM and the trend is coming to an end in terms of the EMs out-performance of the bull market. So you are looking at substantial downsides from here. It could be 10-20 percent. If you add the currency on top of that which could be incrementally another 3-5 percent it does not look pretty at all. On top of that you have FIIs out of the debt market, FIIs trying to pull out equity markets. All those things can accentuate a trend even though fundamentally may not be warranted, but in markets those fundamentals do not matter in times that I foresee coming up“.

“That may sound really bad or very negative but in markets we are paid to look at reality and adjust our strategies accordingly” he said cocking a snook at the other analysts who had dared to take a contrary stand.

Shankar Sharma turned slowly to look at the onlookers in the studio and decided it was time to go for the jugular of the disbelievers. “This market gave you an amazing opportunity to exit and if you did not take it then even god cannot help you”, he said pausing for effect. As the impact of the sentence sank in, he repeated it “The market gave you an amazing opportunity, if you didn’t take it too bad and I don’t think that opportunity is going to come back in a hurry. Just looking at the carnage yesterday in global markets even today looks quite ugly. I don’t think those opportunities will be presenting themselves on a platter that easily”.

As Udayan Mukherjee began to twitch uncontrollably, Shankar Sharma sensed that the mood amongst the investors was getting despondent and hostile. In a shrewd move, he attacked everybody’s common enemy, the Government. “The Government has really completely messed up on the gold front by pussyfooting around the core issue” he thundered.

“How is it we have no idea who is buying USD 80 billion of gold when we can track of every buyer who buys a mobile phone, gets a mobile connection, gets a gas connections, gets a car, gets a two wheeler, gets a tractor” he demanded to know. “This is complete rubbish” he shouted with contempt in his voice.

“Why are banks being permitted to sell gold?” he asked. “That is not their business. It is a huge money laundering exercise and they should be outright banned from selling gold” he said with an aggressive look in his eyes even as Udayan Mukherjee cowered in fright.

This was the opportune time to play the nationalistic card. “All politicians must take a vow not to put their slush cash money in gold for the next 12 months” Shankar Sharma said, evoking laughter in the studio. “Out of nationalism in corruption we should put all the cash that we generate through our crooked deals into real estate” he said, easing the tension further.

As Shankar Sharma finished his interview, he had his share of supporters and detractors. An investor named Ashoksj was clearly his fan and said “always sharmas study is in deep and i know last time he said to invest in dollar and rupee will depreciate against dollar, he was right, I have following him since long and most of time he is right“. However, another who disclosed his name as “Guest” was unimpressed “stupid guy always bearish or might be a bear was standing when he was born” he said cryptically. Another, named “nicknamechanged3875”, a platinum member, was also less impressed “Last time when market was 5500 he came on ET NOW and started bhow bhow.. market bottomed out from 5480 and this time bottomed out from 5680” she said derisively. Yet another, named “Ardent Follower” didn’t see the joke in Shankar Sharma’s suggestion that politicians buy real estate with their black money instead of gold “Dude, if they buy gold common man won’t be too worried. If they buy real estate more then where will aam aadmi live? In your bedroom?” he asked. Clearly, there was not much respect for Shankar Sharma’s doomsday prophecy and his detractors were more than his supporters. Will the tide turn in the future? Only time will tell!