Year-to-date, the WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (NYSEArca: EPI) and the PowerShares India Portfolio (NYSEArca: PIN), two of the largest India exchange traded funds, have been among the India funds that have looked noticeably less worse than an array of other single-country emerging markets ETFs.
Now, another catalyst is emerging that could further boost the fortunes of India ETFs, including the iShares India 50 ETF (NasdaqGM: INDY), a proxy for India’s CNX Nifty Index, which is home to India’s 50 largest stocks.
Earlier this year, Indian stocks and ETFs were helped by a controversial update to India’s official GDP-estimation methodology, which could have bolstered recent readings by over two percentage points. Slack earnings and uncertainty regarding taxes on foreign investors are among the issues that have recently hindered Indian stocks. [Living Large With a Leveraged India ETF]
Last year, Indian equities and the aforementioned ETFs were buoyed by the landslide victory for Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi in the country’s national elections. In 2015, other factors are supporting India ETFs, including low oil prices (India is a net importer of crude) and accomodative monetary policy from the Reserve Bank of India.
“We continue to think the election of Modi and his BJP planted the seeds of change. But it’s up to him to better consolidate his base of support around his vision for a more efficient and productive economy. The path to progress, of course, is not always straight, but we are still hopeful reforms, at some point, will materialize. In the meantime, we continue to seek investments that benefit from the current structural drivers propelling Indian growth, regardless of the state of Indian political affairs,” said Thornburg Investment Management in a note posted by Dimitra DeFotis of Barron’s.