​Markets in the middle of a pre-poll rally: Tirthankar Patnaik, Religare Capital

In a chat with ET Now, Tirthankar Patnaik of Religare Capital shares his views on the market. Excerpts:

ET Now: Are you surprised with the kind of move that we have seen in the market in the last few days?

Tirthankar Patnaik: I guess the surprise element has been the speed at which this peak out has happened really. We were expecting numbers to be better. We were expecting a pre-election rally, but the speed at which it has happened has definitely been a surprise, to be honest.

ET Now: Is this the famous pre-poll rally that everyone had been anticipating, which is currently panning out?

Tirthankar Patnaik: My reading is that we are in the middle of it and we have some way to go before the market realises that the macro situation remains cautious. But yes, to answer your question, definitely we are in the middle of it.

ET Now: Do you think 6400, or rather a life time high on the Nifty, is now only a thing on paper and we are almost there? Given that the Sensex is already at an all-time high, how much more can the markets scale up?

Tirthankar Patnaik: At the beginning of the year, we were expecting the market to return about 8%, for the overall year, but pre-elections we were expecting the market to go to about 6500-6600 as well. So we are not surprised. It is really a beta rally.