'Portal opened': How to escape US market-led rout? Samir Arora has the answer

The $2.4-trillion Wall Street rout overnight sent Asian markets into tailspin, with bourses across Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China and India tumbling up to 4 per cent in Friday's trade. Market veteran Samir Arora, known for his great sense of humour, believed he had find a way to avoid the impact of Wall Street on equities globally.   

Unfortunately, most investors might have missed the trick. 

Arora of Helios Capital, who resides in Singapore, shared a picture of a cloud formation in Singapore sky on social medial platform X, which looked like a portal to the other world, as shown in many Hollywood flicks. 

Sarcastically, he said: "Portal opened in Singapore skies today- in  case anyone wants to escape from US market." 

But where would the portal lead investors to? An X user cautioned: 'portals' are always two-way. The reality is if Wall Street tumble, others follow suit. 

This is because the US accounts for 26 per cent of the global GDP and 48 per cent of the world’s market cap. When the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. The world is bracing for a severe recession in the US following Trump tariffs. 

In the case of India, the 27 per cent tariff imposed on India is looking reasonable from a relative perspective. Bigger worries are on weaker US economic outlook, which is negative for IT services and other exporters, Jefferies said. 

The direct impact on India may be muted, but the resulting US recession poses a 3 per cent risk to FY26 Nifty EPS and the consequent derating could push the Nifty down to 21,500, Emkay Global warned. 

At the time of writing this copy, the BSE Sensex was trading 820.31 points, or 1.08 per cent, lower at 75,475.05. Japan's Nikkei sank 4.16 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.52 per cent, Korea's Kospi tumbled 1.9 per cent sank 2.97 per cent.

"Incrementally, we would look to buy the dip, especially on pharma. The key risk to this view is a prolonged global risk off," Jefferies said.