Both the Sensex and the Nifty have hovered around the flat terrain, while major indices like Nasdaq, Hang Seng, and Singapore's Straits Times have all managed to outperform them.
Even as the Street comes to terms with the 10 percent fall it has seen since hitting its record highs in January, a year-to-date chart that maps the performance of key Indian indices against global ones revealed that India has largely tried to stabilise itself in a volatile global environment.
Both the Sensex and the Nifty have hovered around the flat terrain, while major indices like Nasdaq, Hang Seng, and Singapore's Straits Times have all managed to outperform them. The data collected is for the period between December 29, 2017, and April 13, 2018.
As can be seen in the chart, the top gainer in the period under review is Nasdaq, with gains of around 3.4 percent. Straits Times gained almost 2 percent during this period while the Hang Seng rose by around 3 percent.
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On the other hand, the Sensex rose by merely 0.13 percent between December 27 and April 13, while the Nifty was marginally in the red, having lost 0.6 percent.
Having said that, other major indices from around the world have actually declined more than the Indian ones, including some from the United States, Europe and Asia. The Dow Jones fell 1 percent during the above-mentioned period, while others like Kospi, Nikkei, and FTSE 100, fell by up to 6 percent.
Interestingly, global research firm Morgan Stanley is upbeat on the Indian market and believes that it will outperform other emerging markets (EMs), going forward. Keeping that in mind, it has set a target of 41,500 for the Sensex by end of December this year.
This bull case scenario of Morgan Stanley's, which is based on better than expected outcomes, mostly on policy and global factors, and expectations of earnings growth accelerating to 10 percent in FY18 and 29 percent in FY19, has a 30 percent probability of the target being achieved.
In its research report, the firm highlighted how the market had digested aspects like rise in rates, domestic political news, a bank scandal, rise in equity supply, and protectionist waves, among others. This resulted in a 10 percent drop in the Sensex, a rise in volatility, a test of the 200-DMA, a notable fall in the breadth of the market, and worsening of market sentiment, among other things.
But things are now looking upward as factors such as the growth cycle are seeing a turnaround.
"A combination of supportive global growth, improving capex, fiscal spending and a buoyant consumer coupled with the end of corporate balance sheet recession, strong free cash flow, the low starting point of profit/GDP are signals worth noting," Morgan Stanley said in its report, adding that the yield curve has appropriately steepened and will take stocks higher with it.
(With inputs from Ritesh Presswala)