Despite being dumped along with other emerging markets during the recent market turmoil, India exchange traded funds track a more sturdy developing economy, compared to many other slowing markets.
Over the past three months, the WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (NYSEArca: EPI) dipped 8.2%, iShares India 50 ETF (NasdaqGM: INDY) retreated 6.6% and PowerShares India Portfolio (NYSEArca: PIN) fell 7.9%.
In contrast, the broader iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM) declined 16.6% over the past three months.
“The choices aren’t great really outside of India,” Prashant Kothari, senior investment manager of Pictet Asset Management Ltd., told the Wall Street Journal.
While foreign institutional investors yanked $2.6 billion from Indian stocks in August, one of the largest single month outflows since the global financial crisis, fund managers with a global scope still significantly raised their allocation to Indian stocks in recent months.
For instance, the average global emerging market fund increased India allocation to 10.7% at the end of July, or a 40% rise from typical exposures at the start of 2014, according to EPFR Global.
“If you look at the four key bellwethers of emerging markets—Brazil, Russia, India and China—India would be by far the market darling out of those four,” Sam Le Cornu, a manager at Asian equities for Macquarie Investment Management, told the WSJ. “We have bought more India recently.”
Enticing money managers, India’s economy is expected to expand faster than its BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China – counterparts. India’s trade imbalances are also diminishing and the country’s currencies and stocks have held up, or at least haven’t sold off as rapidly, during the the recent troubling outlook on China – the Indian rupee only depreciated 5.8% against the U.S. dollar this year, whereas the Brazilian real plunged 31% and the Russian ruble declined 13%.