ICICI Prudential AMC's Lalit Kumar bets on steel, textiles and manufacturing exporters; cautious on hospitals

Lalit Kumar, Senior Fund Manager at ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (AMC), has set out where he currently sees value in Indian equities: he prefers to be long on steel, sees opportunities among textile and manufacturing exporters, and remains cautious on sectors he characterises as being at peak margins — hospitals among them — as well as on new-age companies. His comments were published on CNBC-TV18's markets page on August 16, 2026 (original article).

Where Kumar sees opportunity

Kumar's preference for being long on steel aligns with one of India's core heavy industries: the country is the world's second-largest crude steel producer after China, and steel is a key input for construction and infrastructure activity. The sector also carries explicit policy anchors — the National Steel Policy of 2017 targets a domestic capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2030-31, and a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme covers specialty steel grades — giving observers concrete benchmarks against which to track capacity additions.

His interest in exporters spans two pillars of India's real economy. The textile industry is one of the country's largest employers and a long-standing contributor to merchandise exports, and it has been the recipient of dedicated policy support, including the PM MITRA scheme for large integrated textile parks and PLI coverage for man-made fibre garments and technical textiles. India's broader manufacturing export basket includes sectors such as engineering goods, garments and pharmaceuticals, several of which fall under the government's multi-sector PLI programme designed to encourage domestic value addition.

Where he remains cautious

Alongside these preferences, Kumar is cautious on hospitals — the sector named in the segment — and, more broadly, on “peak-margin” sectors, a term for businesses whose profitability is already at elevated levels. Listed hospital operators such as Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Max Healthcare and Fortis Healthcare form a significant part of India's healthcare footprint on the stock market. He is similarly guarded on “new-age companies,” a phrase commonly used in Indian market commentary for recently listed, technology-led businesses — a cohort whose 2021 listing class included food-delivery platform Zomato (now Eternal), online beauty retailer Nykaa, payments company Paytm (One97 Communications) and insurance marketplace PB Fintech, which operates PolicyBazaar.

Background

ICICI Prudential AMC is one of India's largest asset management companies. It operates as a joint venture between ICICI Bank — one of India's largest private-sector banks — and Prudential plc of the United Kingdom, and offers equity, debt and hybrid funds to retail and institutional investors. Kumar serves as Senior Fund Manager at the firm.

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