"Worst Is Behind Us": Quant's Sandeep Tandon On Indian Markets

Indian equity markets are showing positive signs after a difficult two-year period, Sandeep Tandon, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Quant Mutual Fund, explained at the NDTV Profit Ignite 2026 event on Wednesday.Tandon noted that macro fundamentals in India are strengthening and foreign institutional investors (FII) selling is slowing down.Better Days Ahead For Indian Markets?Tandon said that the Indian markets have been doing better recently.Also Read | Layoffs Are Rising In Tech, But These Skills Are Helping People Unlock Better Pay"The last two years have been bad for the Indian market, but the market is looking much better now compared to two years ago," he said."We saw some capitulation in the market about six months ago. I believe the worst is behind us, and things will only improve from here," Tandon added.The Quant Mutual Fund founder noted that headline indices, such as benchmark Nifty, were establishing a durable floor. Tandon asked market participants to fixate less on absolute valuations or index levels and adopt a relative evaluation framework instead."You should look at relatives instead of absolutes," Tandon explained.He highlighted that factors such as relative risk-reward ratios, capital positioning and sector rotations offer a much clearer gauge of market bottoms than static multiples.“Signs Of Selling Exhaustion” In FIIsThe ace investor pointed out that there have been signs of “selling exhaustion” from the side of the FIIs.Tandon then addressed the industry criticism regarding domestic institutional flows. "Everyone is blaming us mutual funds, saying that we are providing an exit to FIIs, private equity, and others," he said.Tandon stressed that domestic institutional capital has provided a lot of systemic absorption and stability in times of sustained foreign outflows.He explained that the midcap segment, especially the Midcap 150, was crowded currently.He remained optimistic that there was value in overlooked defensive segments. Quant Mutual Fund's chief investment officer mentioned that some fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) counters offer favourable risk-reward setups and have been neglected for a long time despite healthy fundamental drivers.Tandon stressed that disciplined positioning in neglected sectors will perform better than crowded momentum plays as the market cycle takes shape.