India Stocks Rise as Investors Bank on Economic Recovery in 2020
Stocks have largely priced in a slowdown that’s seen the country’s economy growing at the slowest pace since 2013.
(Bloomberg) -- Indian stocks rose on the expectation that a slowdown in economic expansion has bottomed out and growth will recover in 2020 on the back of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s planned $1.5 trillion infrastructure push.
The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.1% to 41,306.6 at the 3:30 pm close in Mumbai. The NSE Nifty 50 Index also advanced by 0.1%.
Stocks have largely priced in a slowdown that’s seen the country’s economy growing at the slowest pace since 2013. Focus is shifting to whether a rally in the benchmark indexes will broaden out to the wider market, and which industries are most likely to benefit from a potential revival in GDP growth in India as well as globally.
Strategist View
“Information technology and bank stocks are some of the best ways to play the economic recovery,” said Prakash Pandey, who oversees investments and research at Plutus Advisors & Consulting Ltd. in New Delhi. “In IT there is not much of a debt problem, compared to other sectors. Growth in business will go straight to the bottom line. Midcap banks also have a lot of potential to gain this year, partly by capitalizing on non-bank lenders’ struggles.”
The Numbers
- Ten of 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. gained, led by a gauge of power companies
- Half of the Sensex’s 30 shares rose
- HDFC contributed the most to the index advance, increasing 0.8%, while Power Grid had the largest gain, climbing 2.8%
- IndusInd Bank was the biggest drag on the index, declining 1.7%, Titan Co. had the biggest drop, falling 2.8%
Related Stories
To contact the reporter on this story: Ronojoy Mazumdar in Mumbai at rmazumdar7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Anto Antony
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
