ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX ETF

Investors remain bullish on India's stock market performance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's govt, anticipating stability, growth, and continued attractiveness to global funds. Modi's focus on manufacturing, infrastructure, and addressing electorate concerns are key expectations.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust navigates stabilizing outflows amidst SEC-approved rivals and intense competition from BlackRock and Fidelity. Plans for Bitcoin Mini Trust and spot ether ETF in progress as CEO Sonnenshein anticipates fee reduction in mature markets.

Analysts say this time is different, pointing to a stellar rally in the past year, rich valuations and uncertainties around political issues such as corruption and electoral funding as factors giving investors reason to pause.

Spot bitcoin ETFs and AI investments overshadowed Q1. Predictions include single-country and bond ETF growth. Key trends: Japan-focused ETFs, broadening U.S. stock market leadership, value stocks. Watch for Fidelity, Invesco, Capital Group.

"If ever there was a compelling case for a more systematic approach to active management, it's now," said Donald Calcagni, chief investment officer of Mercer Advisors Investment Management and a buyer of active emerging-market ETFs.

​The investment objective of Motilal Oswal Nifty Realty ETF is to provide returns that, before expenses, correspond to the total returns of the securities as represented by the Nifty Realty Index, subject to tracking error.

The battle for dominance in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index between India and China hinges on sustained economic growth, reforms, demographic advantage, and challenges faced by China. However, potential hurdles include interest rate hikes, geopolitical tensions, market valuations, and challenges in the real estate, information technology, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Nilesh Shah of Kotak AMC emphasizes the importance of maintaining superior growth, governance, and green initiatives for India's financial markets to outperform the economic market. Engaging with regulatory authorities has increased India's weightage in the MSCI Index, narrowing the gap with China. While India jas moved from 8% to 18% in six years, China, instead of going from 30% plus to 50% plus, is now 25%.

India's rise in the MSCI EM index, with a weight of 18.2%, has sparked global conversations about its potential to surpass the dominance of China in the popular stock market index for investors in emerging markets. Factors such as strong corporate earnings and foreign investment inflows contribute to India's growth, while China faces challenges with declining weight and slumping stock prices.

India's weightage in the MSCI Global Standard (Emerging Markets) index will reach a historic high of 18.2%. India's representation is expected to increase to around 18.5% after the February rejig, according to Abhilash Pagaria of Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research. The quarterly rebalancing could lead to significant inflows from passive FII funds.

The climb can be attributed to India's standardized foreign ownership limit (FOL) in 2020, the sustained rally in domestic equities and relative underperformance of other emerging markets, especially China, Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research said in a note.

The MSCI inclusion can lead to about $ 186 million inflows in NMDC, $180 million in PNB, $156 million in BHEL, $140 million in Union Bank, and $223 million in NHPC. IREDA, Mamaearth, RR Kabel, SpiceJet, Inox Wind, Balmer Lawrie, Ethos, MSTC, and DB Realty, among others can get included in the MSCI Smallcap Index.

Usually, NFOs come during a surging market when investor sentiments are high and optimistic. The NFOs were floated to capitalise on the mood of investors and attract their investment as they were willing to invest at that time.

Last week, the US SEC approved ETFs based on bitcoin, a move that sent cryptocurrency prices soaring worldwide. Das has steadfastly maintained over the years that cryptocurrencies pose immense threats to currency and monetary stability and could be the source of the next major global financial crisis.

We believe one should not look at indices, before concluding Indian markets are expensive. The additions to indices specially in large cap have mostly been costlier stocks making their past absolute valuations un-comparable. Indian seems to be in a Goldilocks situation with High Growth of corporate earnings, an ever growing macro economy contributing to ~15% of worlds incremental growth and witnessing start of a Capex cycle to help India become a manufacturing hub for the world. Themes we like are a) Power, b) Water c) Defense, d) Railways, e) ER&D and f) Chemicals.

The Chinese stock market accounted for 23.77% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index as of Dec. 31, according to Bloomberg calculations, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. put the latest weight at 26.4%, citing FactSet data. Either way, this is the lowest since 2017, when the New York-based firm announced the addition of China’s mainland stocks, so-called A shares, to the index.

According to Nuvama's estimates the addition of the above stocks is likely to result in combined passive inflows of $567 million. In Jindal's case, it is the highest and estimated at $149 million, followed by $142 million in PNB and $138 million each in BHEL and Oberoi

With the addition of nine stocks on Friday, India's representation on the MSCI's Global Standard (Emerging Markets) index climbed to 16.27%, surpassing the earlier record set in October 2022 at 16.21%. Last month, India reclaimed the second position after displacing Taiwan. Currently, China has the highest weighting on the gauge - at 28%.

India should benefit from strong domestic participation and attractive risk-adjusted returns relative to developed markets, while Saudi Arabia may see positive earnings revisions from higher oil prices. Meanwhile, Mexico is likely to cash in on the near-shoring trend, with US manufacturers moving manufacturing closer to home.

During last year's bear market, investors injected over $60 billion into dividend-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs), seeking shelter. However, major dividend ETFs have lagged behind a tech-driven market, with the $18 billion iShares Select Dividend ETF down 5.4%. The move reflects the challenge of market timing.

The three largest additions to the MSCI ACWI from developed markets will be Vertiv Holdings and Celsius Holdings from the United States, and Italy's Leonardo.

Burry's Scion Asset Management's biggest new position last quarter was in bearish options on an exchange-traded fund focused on semiconductors. He bought put options with a notional value of $47.4 million against the iShares Semiconductor ETF , according to the filing. The ETF is up 45.37% year to date.

India now has a weighting of 15.5% on the MSCI Emerging Market Index (EM), compared with 15.11% for Taiwan. India's weighting has climbed from 12.97% end-January, when Taiwan's weighting was 14.42%.