Indian Equities Go to First From Worst BRIC Market (Update4) 

Bloomberg.com

By Michael Patterson



April 15 (Bloomberg) -- Indian stocks, laggards among the world's biggest
emerging-market economies in the first quarter, recovered to post the
steepest returns the past month as investors snapped up the cheapest
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SENSEX%3AIND>  shares in 13
years. 

BlackRock Inc. <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=BLK%3AUS> , UBS
AG <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=UBSN%3AVX>  and billionaire
Wilbur
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Wilbur+Ross&site=wnews&client=wnews&pr
oxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=w
nnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Ross predict more gains as record-low borrowing
costs boost consumer spending in the world's second-most populous nation. 

"We will be looking at more opportunities in India for sure," Ross, chairman
of New York-based W.L. Ross & Co., said in an April 8 interview with
Bloomberg Television. "Over a long period of time, it will be a very
rewarding place, particularly since the market has come off so drastically."


The Bombay Stock <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SENSEX%3AIND>
Exchange Sensitive Index climbed 38 percent since falling to its lowest
level in more than three years on March 9. The advance beat increases among
equity benchmark indexes for Brazil
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=IBOVV%3AIND> , Russia
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=INDEXCF%3AIND>  and China
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SHCOMP%3AIND> , the biggest
developing economies. Indian shares traded at 9.2 times profit, the cheapest
since at least 1996, after the Sensex plunged 45 percent since September,
the worst slide among the so-called BRIC nations, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg and UBS. 

The Sensex climbed 2.9 percent today to 11,284.73, the highest closing level
in six months. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped 0.2 percent as of
12:30 p.m. in New York. 

Cars, Credit 

Zurich-based UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, forecasts the Sensex
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SENSEX%3AIND>  will gain 20
percent in the next 12 months as lower interest rates spur demand for credit
from ICICI <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=ICICCIBC%3AIN>  Bank
Ltd. and cars made by Maruti Suzuki India
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MSIL%3AIN>  Ltd. 

BlackRock, the biggest publicly traded U.S. money manager, predicts India's
market may get a boost from domestic mutual funds that it estimates are
holding as much as 20 percent of their assets in cash. 

Ross, 71, bought a stake in New Delhi-based SpiceJet Ltd.
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SJET%3AIN>  in August. He made
an unsuccessful bid this month for control of Hyderabad-based software
exporter Satyam Computer
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SAY%3AIN>  Services Ltd.,
Chairman Kiran
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Kiran+Karnik&site=wnews&client=wnews&p
roxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=
wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Karnik said. 

Shares of New Delhi-based Maruti
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MSIL%3AIN>  Suzuki, India's
biggest carmaker, will rally on revived demand for diesel-powered autos, and
Mumbai-based ICICI <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=ICICIBC%3AIN>
, India's second-largest lender, may advance as the economy bottoms in the
next six months, Suresh
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Suresh%0AMahadevan&site=wnews&client=w
news&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getf
ields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Mahadevan, UBS's head of India Research,
wrote in a March 26 note. He added both stocks to UBS's "model portfolio"
for India. 

ICICI advanced 6.3 percent today, the steepest gain in three weeks. Maruti
Suzuki rose 2.9 percent to the highest level since March 2008. 

Domestic Economy 

India's gross domestic product, the fourth-largest among developing nations,
may grow at a 5.1 percent pace this year, down from 7.3 percent last year,
according to the International Monetary Fund. The estimated growth is the
second-fastest after China among major economies tracked by the
Washington-based IMF. 

"The global recession shouldn't affect India as much" as other developing
countries, Pu
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Pu+Yonghao&site=wnews&client=wnews&pro
xystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wn
nis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Yonghao, chief Asian investment strategist at UBS's
international and Swiss wealth management unit, which oversaw about $764
billion as of December 2008, said in an April 9 interview on Bloomberg
Television from Hong Kong. "It's mostly a domestic economy. That's why we
like India." 

Satyam 

The Sensex began falling from a record in January 2008 as a 50 percent gain
in oil prices helped push inflation to a 16-year high by August, prompting
the central bank to raise its benchmark repurchase rate three times to a
seven-year high of 9 percent. The selloff accelerated in September as New
York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=LEHQ%3AUS>  Inc.'s bankruptcy
froze global credit markets and sparked an exodus from emerging-market
assets. 

Investor confidence eroded further on concern that India's budget deficit,
which the Planning Commission estimates exceeded 6 percent in the year ended
March 31, may make it more expensive for companies to borrow. The January
disclosure by Satyam's former Chairman Ramalinga Raju that he inflated
earnings and assets by $1 billion spurred speculation that more Indian
companies may have reported inaccurate financial statements. 

The Indian equity index climbed 0.6 percent during the first quarter, while
China's Shanghai Composite index added 30 percent, Russia's Micex rose 25
percent and Brazil's Bovespa increased 9 percent. 

The Sensex's latest rally may fizzle as investors sell shares ahead of
general elections in the world's largest democracy, scheduled for April 16
to May 13, according to RCM's Michael
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Michael+Konstantinov&site=wnews&client
=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&ge
tfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Konstantinov. 

Singh Party 

"The elections put a lot of uncertainty" on government efforts to combat the
economic slowdown, said Konstantinov, who oversees about $5 billion as the
Frankfurt-based chief investment officer for emerging-market equities at
RCM, a division of Allianz Global Investors. "We'll wait for the outcome
before we put more money there." 

Prime Minister Manmohan
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Manmohan+Singh&site=wnews&client=wnews
&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfield
s=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Singh's Congress Party-led United Progressive
Alliance is competing with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party-led
National Democratic Alliance and a group of communist and regional parties
known as the third front. 

The elections may result with no existing political alliance able to form a
government, according to a Star News- Nielsen poll conducted from March 26
to April 3. 

Even if political deadlock hampers government efforts to bolster the
economy, the lowest inflation in two decades means the central bank will
reduce borrowing costs after five cuts since mid-October sent the repurchase
rate to 5 percent, according to UBS's Pu
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Pu&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystyles
heet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort
=date:D:S:d1> . That may help bolster consumption, which accounts for about
60 percent of the economy. 

Valuations 

After the past month's rally, the Sensex is valued at 11.6 times its
companies' reported earnings
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SENSEX%3AIND> , near the lowest
relative to the MSCI emerging
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MXEF%3AIND>  markets index since
May 2004, according to Bloomberg data. Earnings at Indian companies will
drop about 16 percent in 2009, compared with a 25 percent decline for
emerging markets as a whole, New York-based Morgan Stanley
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=MS%3AUS>  estimates. 

Brazil's Bovespa <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=IBOV%3AIND>
index is valued at 14.4 times reported earnings after climbing 23 percent
the past month, while the Shanghai
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=SHCOMP%3AIND>  Composite trades
for 21 times profit after a 20 percent rally. The Micex
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=INDEXCF%3AIND>  index of Russian
stocks, up 32 percent, is valued at 4.7 times earnings. 

"Investors have been quite negative on the market" in India, said Dhiren
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Dhiren+Shah&site=wnews&client=wnews&pr
oxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=w
nnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Shah, an emerging-markets money manager at New
York-based BlackRock, which oversees about $1.3 trillion worldwide. "We
still remain quite positive." 

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Michael+Patterson&site=wnews&client=wn
ews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfi
elds=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>  Patterson in London at
[email protected] 

Last Updated: April 15, 2009 13:32 EDT

 

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