Will classic defensive bets outperform the markets?

 Market participants are reading into the developments surrounding the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Let's find out investing which sectors will prove to be beneficial for investors in this volatility

Frequent bounce-backs and corrections are keeping investors confused about the market trajectory.
As Covid-19 cases continue to spike across the globe and vaccine efficacy is unknown against the new variant, adopting a prudent investment strategy is the way forward to safeguard one’s portfolio.
An analysis by ICICI Direct shows that all major market corrections since April 2020 got arrested within 9-11% range.
And buying in each of these corrections has been fruitful for investors as indices subsequently retested previous highs.
Given this, research analysts at ICICI Direct expect markets to maintain the same rhythm this time around too.
In the current scenario, after a 31 per cent rally in the past six months, the benchmarks have corrected 9 per cent from their respective lifetime highs.
Therefore, the ongoing correction should be capitalized on as an incremental buying opportunity to ride the structural uptrend
But, will put your money behind the classic defensive bets prove to be beneficial this time? Let’s find out.
Over the past few months, healthcare stocks have witnessed retracement while IT stocks have been consolidating in a narrow range.
As these stocks form a fresh bases at higher levels, analysts foresee decent returns from the space in days ahead.