India: A micro and macro anchor amid global uncertainty

Like other major economies, India has endured its fair share of headwinds over the last two years, including an extended shutdown in 2020 and a severe wave of Covid-19 in 2021. 

This year, however, amid skyrocketing commodity prices, India — once thought to be vulnerable to such external shocks — has surprised investors with its resilience.

Recall that India was categorised as a member of the “fragile five” countries in 2013. Less than a decade later, amid unprecedented global challenges, India has proved itself to be anything but — and shown why it was wrong to include the country in that grouping.

The macro headwinds India has been facing seem to be receding. The fall in prices of global commodities, especially those that India imports, has brought inflation down from its highs earlier this year. 

This should reduce the possibility of further increases in interest rates and keep the cost of capital reasonable. 

Companies have not seen significant destruction in demand due to high inflation, as they were able to absorb part of it through excess production capacity while also benefitting from operating leverage.

Companies also have robust balance sheets, with low debt-to-equity levels. Bank balance sheets, in particular, have seen a cleanup of past bad loans, resulting in one of the healthiest net non-performing asset (NNPA) ratios in a long time. 

As demand grows, we expect banks to continue to lend, and companies to willingly borrow, given the very low balance-sheet risk for both parties. 

We are also watching frequent corporate announcements of plans to augment capacity to meet future demand.

Listed private manufacturing companies have low leverage

Banks’ net non-performing asset (NNPA) ratios have mostly fallen

This change in both the macro outlook and micro factors has caused foreign investors to turn positive on India. After a period of constant foreign outflows, flows turned net positive in July. 

We are also seeing signs of a revival in initial public offerings and successful secondary market equity capital-raising.

Valuations have come off since their peaks last year and are more reasonable, albeit they do factor in earnings growth. 

Barring major unforeseen hurdles, India appears positioned for sustainable growth. All told, we believe investors should consider allocating capital to India, especially to companies with the potential to capture a significant portion of the expected growth.

Read more: India equities glimmer against a resilient, rising economy

This article was originally published by PineBridge Investments on 14 Sept 2022.

PineBridge Investments is a global asset manager focused on active, high-conviction investing. As of 30 June 2022, the firm managed US$141.1 billion across global asset classes for sophisticated investors around the world. 

Endowus has three funds from PineBridge (as of 3 Oct 2022), namely the India Equity Fund, the Asia ex Japan Small Cap Equity Fund, and the US Large Cap Research Enhanced Fund.

Get started building your own portfolio with these funds on the Endowus Fund Smart platform.

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