India ended the quarter with a strong month of June with a return of over 7%, mainly thanks to retail investors re-entering the market along with foreign inflows. June marked an important decoupling from Western lead out performance earlier in the quarter. The widely followed economic indicator, the PMI (Purchasing Manager’s Index) jumped to a whopping 47 in June from 31 in May following optimism around the reopening of the economy. Three major rating agencies reviewed India’s sovereign rating and the conclusion is in: India is still rated as investment grade with a stable outlook, as rated previously.
After huge outflows of money from the equity market in the first quarter, the last three months have been reversed as foreign investors have put in around US$ 4 billion while domestic investor inflows remained strong at US$ 12 billion for the first half of this year. Furthermore, to help shore up the weakened economy, the central bank has cut interest rates and injected liquidity.
India’s partial unlocking has seen the PMI Index improve from 27 in April to 47 in June. India’s unemployment rate, which had peaked to almost 25%, is now down to 8%, near pre-COVID-19 levels.
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Source: Bloomberg LP, UTI International, Reliance Investments