In a year marked by global economic challenges, National Stock Exchange (NSE) CEO Ashish Chauhan painted an optimistic picture of India's financial landscape. "Finally, we are reaching the place where we are actually preparing for takeoff," he said.
Despite grappling with supply chain disruptions and the withdrawal of funds by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), Chauhan said Indian investors continued to inject substantial amounts into the market each month.
"If you look back for the entire year, I think (the) Nifty has returned almost 18%, still two, three days to go. And there are other indexes which have returned 23-40%, and the small-cap Nifty has returned 60%," noted Chauhan, attributing this resilience to a departure from previous years.
He pointed out that unlike earlier periods of economic challenges, this year saw circumstances not dictating Indian activities. The usual triggers such as rising oil prices and foreign interest rates did not lead to market downturns.
"...in some ways, this is the year where the circumstances did not take over Indian activities. Earlier, whenever the oil prices went up, we used to be in trouble, interest rates abroad would go up, we would have FPIs taking money and markets will tank. This is the first time we didn't see that happening, the Indian investor was sort of enlisting increasingly larger amounts every month," he said.
The NSE CEO expressed confidence in India's economic resilience, particularly with the reduction in US interest rates and signs of FPIs returning. "Towards the end of the year, when the US started decreasing interest rates — and of course, there is a potential that it might go further down… that's why all the FPIs are back," he added.
Looking ahead to 2024, Chauhan anticipated a notable economic takeoff and emphasised the strategic importance of focusing on Uttar Pradesh. Drawing inspiration from Gujarat's success story, he stressed the need to harness momentum for sustained growth. The CEO hinted at the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO) in 2024, underlining his confidence in India's economic prospects.
He said, "Today, you would have also seen another interesting statistic of India's current account deficit coming down to almost 0.1%. Why did this happen? It is because our services and remittances have now grown much more than our imports of oil, electronics, and gold."
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