The Hindu Business Line : Indian indices shed less than global markets

AMONG the emerging and other global markets, Indian equity markets have fallen the least since the beginning of this month, despite the uncertainty over the poll outcome.

A comparison of the various international market shows that the BSE Sensex has fallen by 1.76 per cent since the beginning of this month and NSE's S&P CNX Nifty by 1.50 per cent.

Compared to this, Indonesia's benchmark index is down 9.73 per cent, Korea by 7.65 per cent and Thailand by 6.56 per cent. China benchmark index fell by 6.38 per cent, Taiwan by 4.79 per cent and Malaysia by 2.96 per cent.

Among the developed market, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 7.46 per cent since the beginning of this month, Hong Kong's main index Hang Seng dropped by 3.83 per cent, Singapore by 2.73 per cent and France by 2.26 per cent.

Only UK's FTSE fell lower than Indian indices. It is down by 1.41 per cent since the beginning of this month. Till Friday, Philippines index gained by 0.02 per cent. However, the markets in the Philippines were closed on Monday.

The fall in the global markets is mainly due to the rising oil prices, possible hike in interest rate in the US and concern over slowdown in Chinese economy.

Brokers and analysts said the Indian market outperforming most of the global markets is due to the strong fundamentals of the economy and faith of FIIs in Indian companies.

"Some sectors in India are showing growth due to vibrant local market and surge in export and this is attracting lot of foreign money into India," says Mr Sandeep Shenoy, Strategist, Pioneer Intermediaries.

He feels that though India has garnered large fund inflows from FIIs, this is still not huge from global perspective.

"Indian market has intrinsic value and this has resulted in its remaining stable despite uncertain environment." A top official of a foreign broking firm said, "Most of the global markets have been affected due to the fear of slowdown of Chinese economy. Indian markets are somewhat stable as we are not too much dependent on China."

The US market also opened with a steep fall of over one per cent on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen below 10,000 for the first time this year on fear of hike in interest rates. The Dow slumped 130.80 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 9984.84. The last time, the Dow was quoting below 10,000 level was on December 12, 2003. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.4 per cent to 1,890.31 and the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 1.4 per cent, to 1,083.62.