India is world's best growth story: Wood

India is the best growth story in the world, and especially in Asia, said Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, during the Business Standard BFSI Summit 2023

- PUNEET WADHWA & NIKITA VASHISHT

However, global investors have barely invested in Indian equities, he said.

Even emerging market (EM) investors, according to him, are moderately 'overweight' on India.

"Investors should be structurally invested here as tactically the markets have done well. Midcaps, obviously, are expensive, and India will be vulnerable to a Wall Street-correlated correction caused by higher bond yields," Wood cautioned.

Wood said the key thing the market regulator in India can do is to make it easier for foreign investors to invest here. "Most EMs are easier to invest for foreign investors than India," Wood said.

Indian stock markets, Wood believes, could see 25 per cent correction in 2024, if the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not return to power in a working majority after the general elections scheduled for 2024. This, he said, is the biggest risk for the Indian stock markets as things stand. As a strategy, he suggests that investors should stay put for now, and 'buy the dips'.

Though he believes that India is the best domestic equity story among EMS, which has been accentuated by the problems in China, he would not take a leveraged trade on India before the general elections.