Investors always gets inclined to the growth story, and with India’s equity market making new highs, the country’s economy and frontline indexes have captured global attention. In the previous month, market cap of NSE surpassed the flagging Hong Kong Stock Exchange and because of this India’s equity was declared as the 7th largest equity market. It hovered ~$4 trillion, almost doubling its value since beginning of 2020. Nifty50 index, which is the weighted average of leading listed Indian companies, touched the record high this week.
Recently, bullish narrative for Indian stocks was able to gather momentum as economics, geopolitics and policy have all joined hands and acted in favour of India’s economy. Both institutional and retail investors invested large chunks in the companies. Domestic investors have supported a lot in this increased momentum, with foreign equity inflows reaching to the tune of ~$14 billion so far in 2023. Apart from these increases, fresh listings have soared too.
Economic case for India appears to be compelling as it overtook China to be named as the world’s most populous country. Economists expect that, by early 2030s, India will have the largest working-age and middle-class populations. This should be able to support increased urbanisation and industrialisation, which can result in strong consumption and investment.
Bulls supported the overall Indian markets on December 14, with the frontline indexes touching record highs. Top sectoral performers on Thursday were technology and realty indexes. By the end of Thursday, Sensex went up by ~929 points to close the session at ~70,514.20, while Nifty50 increased ~256 points to sit at ~21,182.70 levels. By the day’s end, ~1,851 shares advanced, ~1,363 shares closed in red and ~86 shares remained unchanged.
China has been tagged as the leader in terms of oil demand for several decades, but this is about to see a change soon. Global fund managers believe that oil markets should be able to shift away from China because India now has the capacity initiate demand growth over the next 20 years.
China’s current situation has not been good as it faces sluggishness, debt woes, and geopolitical conflicts. Collectively, these have impacted the stock market performance in China.
Leading benchmarks in China trade close to the lows which were seen in 2016. MSCI China Index, that measures stocks on mainland bourses and Chinese companies which are listed in Hong Kong and New York, saw a fall of ~15% in 2023.
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