New Delhi, Feb. 25 -- Vikas Gupta, CEO & Chief Investment Strategist at OmniScience Capital, believes that the Indian stock market remains on firm ground amid a strong macroeconomic setup. He expects the Indian markets to outperform the other developed markets in the year ahead.

Sectorally, he prefers the banking space and recommends avoiding IT and defence pack as valuations and sector-specific risks weigh. Edited excerpts:

Being overweight on banks for several quarters now, our focus within large caps was on the banks. The PSU banks saw double-digit growth on the asset books. Asset quality continued improving with NNPAs close to historic lows. The balance sheets are the strongest in decades, with idle lending capacity as indicated by ...