India among strong emerging markets in Q2; investor sentiments positive: Mark Mobius

Mark Mobius’ Templeton Emerging Markets Group on Monday placed India among ‘strong emerging markets’ in the quarter gone by as the Asian region continued to gain.

The outlook of the investment trust was that sentiments toward these emerging markets will become more positive as they look for higher returns and risk appetite improves.

“Markets in Asia continued to gain, making it the strongest-performing emerging-market region for the quarter. 
The Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong and South Korean markets all produced double-digit returns, while Indonesia, Thailand and India also recorded gains.

…Sentiment toward emerging markets continues to become more positive as many investors look for higher yields and the risk perception toward the asset class improves,” the report said.

However in the Asian region, Philippines and Malaysia were the weakest markets, ending the quarter with declines.

The report said that a rebound in emerging-market currencies, easing concerns about a hard landing in China, attractive valuations and robust economic fundamentals in many economies are some of the factors that have continued to support the performance of emerging markets.

Consumer related service industries along with IT companies will become more attractive under current market circumstances as technology becomes more integral and competitive in emerging markets, the report said.

With the GDP growth in many countries slowly improving, India continued to grow at 7.1% y-o-y in the first quarter of FY17, the report added.

Interest rates remained unchanged at 6.5% while CPI eased to 5.1% y-o-y in August.