Jefferies’ Chris Wood calls India’s stock market rally best in the world, with this warning

Global Head of Equity Strategy at Jefferies Chris Wood said that India is the best long-term equity market globally and the ongoing bull run in the stock market of the country is ‘nowhere near ending’. Talking to CNBC TV18, he said that India’s robust domestic demand and evolving equity culture position the country strongly among major markets in Asia.

“I’ve taken this view since the start of the century that India is the best long-term equity market in the world. Clearly, the US has done fantastically well; but in the emerging markets — Asian context — India remains the great domestic demand story,” he said.

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Talking about the growing equity culture in India, he praised the growing retail interest in stocks and robust domestic flows, saying, “You (India) have this emerging equity culture, and the dynamism of the local asset management industry and growing retail participation. Fundamentally it is extremely healthy that the Indian market is driven by domestic flows and not what the foreigners are doing.”

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Pointing to the resilience of the Indian market following Lok Sabha election results, he said, “Everybody in the market is staggered by the resilience of the market following the surprise election results. I’m staggered that the market only corrected one day. I think the domestic fund managers and stockbrokers – a lot of them sold stocks – on that day and the retail bought it off them. So it’s a very unusual set of circumstance.”

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Although, Chris Woods cautioned that the primary risk to watch is an earnings growth disappointment. He said, “One of the risks for the market is earnings growth disappointment.”