Investor wealth up by $1.5 trillion

New Delhi: The combined market capitalisation of India's publicly listed companies crossed $1.5 trillion on Tuesday, as billions of dollars poured into India in the wake of Narendra Modi’s stunning election victory last month.

Mr Modi, leading the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, scored the biggest election win for 30 years, pledging sweeping reform to create jobs and boost an economy growing below 5 per cent — its slowest in more than a decade.

Strong foreign buying has pushed both the Sensex and the broader Nifty up by just over 20 per cent so far this year, posting a series of record highs — the latest on Tuesday — and far outperforming a 5 percent gain in the MSCI Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan.

Foreign investors have bought a net $8.55 billion so far this year, with $3.31 billion coming since the beginning of May. At $1.52 trillion as of Tuesday’s close, the market value of the National Stock Exchange and the smaller Bombay Stock Exchange makes India the second largest among emerging markets in Asia, ahead of South Korea, but still below the market cap of $2.4 trillion for Shanghai-listed shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.

India’s market capitalisation, however, remains below a peak average of $1.82 trillion hit in December 2007, according to data from BSE. “This is an excellent time to invest, as we are in a long-term bull market that may play out in the next 10 years,” Vijai Mantri, CEO of Pramerica Asset Manag-ement said.