Among BRICS, only Brazil and Russia, thanks to the commodity play, have turned in positive returns in the calendar YTD.
Much to the surprise of investors and traders, the Nifty didn't crack as anticipated on Friday despite the Dow Jones' 1,033-point overnight fall. The Nifty shed a modest 1.15 per cent against much sharper falls in peers like Hang Seng (-3.1 per cent) and Kospi (-1.8 per cent).
While global market weakness, marked by hardening bond yields, will impinge on India, the fact is that the Nifty has performed better than most developed stock markets in the calendar year to date (see table) after its stellar show in 2017. This is thanks to consistently high domestic flows into mutual funds, so far, and the government's commitment to maintaining some fiscal prudence.
Among BRICS, only Brazil and Russia, thanks to the commodity play, have turned in positive returns in the calendar YTD. After the recent debacle, India has lost only 0.7 per cent YTD while the FTSE has corrected by 7 per cent. Even in the month to date, India has shown more resilience than France, Germany, the US, China and Russia's markets.
