Emerging markets stocks and exchange traded funds are on fire to start 2017. One of the obvious sources of that strength is India, Asia’s third-largest economy. The fine start to 2017 comes after Indian stocks and ETFs sagged to end 2016, wilting in the wake of the surprising U.S. election results.
The iShares MSCI India ETF (BATS: INDA), PowerShares India Portfolio (NYSEArca: PIN) and the WisdomTree India Earnings ETF (NYSE: EPI) have all notched double-digit year-to-date gains with EPI leading the way a gain of 11.7% to start 2017.
While Indian stocks may look more attractive after the sell-off, many market watchers are still wary of emerging market exposure, especially with a strengthening U.S. dollar and still uncertain policies under a Trump administration.
Indian shares had declined in eight of the previous nine sessions on concerns over outflows from emerging markets to the U.S. and ongoing issues over India’s move to ban higher-value currency notes, Reuters reports.
“After nearly 2 months in 2017 the Nifty 50 Index (leading Indian stock market index) is about to challenge the magic 9000 points level. This is a very important price point because it coincides with all-time highs in India. A break above this price point will lead Indian stocks much higher in 2017 and 2018,” reports ETF Daily News.