Equity research is the disciplined analysis of a company's business, financials and valuation to form and communicate an investment view — buy, hold, or sell — to portfolio managers and institutional investors.
A sell-side research analyst works at a broker or investment bank, publishes reports and maintains models on a sector for institutional clients. A buy-side analyst works at a fund house (mutual fund, PMS, hedge fund), conducting research to support the fund manager's investment decisions. Both require the same core toolkit: deep financial statement analysis, financial modelling, valuation, industry knowledge and clear written communication.
Pune's relevance to equity research: Pune hosts a growing ecosystem of knowledge process organisations (KPOs) and offshore research centres that provide equity research support to global asset managers and broker-dealers. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and others have analytics and research support functions in Pune. These are not front-office research roles but are legitimate entry points for people with the right analytical skills.
What the job actually requires: the ability to build and maintain a three-statement financial model, to project earnings based on a well-reasoned view of the business, to value the company using DCF and trading multiples, and to write a research note that communicates the investment thesis clearly. All of these are trainable skills.
Linked skills: fundamental analysis, technical analysis, financial modelling, corporate valuation, Bloomberg Terminal.