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Indian stock market sixth in emerging economies

India has notched smart gains to be the sixth most performing stock market among the emerging regions of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe, a worldwide survey of stock exchanges has revealed.

India gained 10.8 per cent in dollar terms in July 1999 to stand at the sixth position, the survey conducted by Morgan Stanley Capital International pointed out.

However, Pakistan and Sri Lankan stocks outperformed Indian bourses by starring among the top three performing countries, the survey added.

MSCI indices are calculated by considering over 3,500 indices and reflect approximately 80 per cent of the world's equity market capitalisation.

Among developing countries, India's island neighbour (Sri Lanka) occupied the top spot after improving by 23.7 per cent. It was closely followed by Pakistan stock exchange which rose by 22.8 per cent.

Regarding Lanka's impressive gains, the survey pointed out that investors are building up in anticipation of the 10.5 per cent offering in the nation's monopoly telecom provider - Sri Lanka Telecom Limited.

In July 1999, the bottom three market performers were Indonesia (13.8 per cent), Thailand (12.7 per cent) and China (12.5per cent). Shares in Jakarta are weighed down by the still unclear domestic political situation pending the release of results from the general elections held on June 7.

Among developed countries, the United States was the third lowest performing market. It grew barely by 3.3 per cent.

Japan emerged at the top in a volatile month for Asian equity markets. It gained a smart 9.9 per cent with optimism continuing to prevail over the country's economic revival.

The top two performing developed markets after Japan were Denmark and Norway.

UNI

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