India’s insurance story still in early innings: long runway ahead: Nischal Maheshwari

"Unfortunately, till now most of the insurance companies have more market related products rather than actually pure insurance, but that is changing and that is why we are seeing some interest coming back. But in this background where they have underperformed quite a bit, I think that is where the interest remains to be and personally, I like the life insurance space and SBI Life and LIC both of them because of attractive valuations," says Nischal Maheshwari, Market Expert.

Give us a sense of some of these insurance stocks that are buzzing in trade, the likes of HDFC Life, SBI Life. They are some of the top Nifty gainers today. Are you positive on the insurance space and if yes, which pockets are you liking at the moment?
Nischal Maheshwari: Insurance if you really look at it for the last four or five years, really have underperformed, though otherwise if you look at from the penetration point of view, India is hardly penetrate. So, there is a long way to go for a long runway for the Indian insurance companies. Unfortunately, till now most of the insurance companies have more market related products rather than actually pure insurance, but that is changing and that is why we are seeing some interest coming back. But in this background where they have underperformed quite a bit, I think that is where the interest remains to be and personally, I like the life insurance space and SBI Life and LIC both of them because of attractive valuations.

If this were actually to happen, how would this pan out for the entire oil and gas space? Could this be seen as a positive? Would you believe a fixed tax bracket could be detrimental to this sector?
Nischal Maheshwari: Oh, definitely. I think it will be positive for the sector, especially the gas companies. But what worry remains to be is how it is going to be impacting the tax collections of the government, so that is the major issue and that is why it is getting delayed. So, I am not quite hopeful that it is going to get taken up and getting implemented.