The market depth in India has increased considerably over the last few years with the number of stocks with more than $1 billion market cap nearly doubling to 500.

While the largest cap stocks (more than $50 billion) are still few, most of the largest caps are also privately owned and well run, foreign brokerage Jefferies said.

The number of stocks with more than $1 billion market cap has nearly doubled to 500 since 2019.

“The Indian equity markets are the only ones across the major emerging market (EM) economies which have consistently given more than 10 per cent annualised returns over the last 5-year/10-year/15-year/20-year periods.

“We believe that more than 10 per cent US$ returns seem sustainable given that India is witnessing a multi-year cyclical uptrend. In terms of positioning, Indias equities are most under-owned by global EM active funds since 2014.

“As India’s weight in MSCI EM has gone up, foreign investors have still not shored up Indian equities with the same proportion, leading to most under-owned position by global EM funds which we believe should change going forward,” the report said.

“Savings in equity is still a small chunk of the overall investment pie in Indian households. Our proprietary analysis of India’s household savings data shows that equity holdings and flows as a percentage of household assets and annual savings is less than 5 per cent,” it added.

With growing awareness towards long-term savings into equities through mutual funds in India, Jefferies estimates the structural flows from retail to the equity markets at $30-35 billion/annum.

“Indeed, just reallocation within the savings pie is enough to sustain retail flows in the market. Auto-deducted monthly flows into equities (SIPs) are just 10 per cent of annual incremental bank deposits; and can gain further share,” the report said.

India rank’s fifth not only in terms of nominal GDP, but also in terms of market cap. India’s market cap stands at $4.3 trillion, behind the US ($44.7 trillion), China ($9.8 trillion), Japan ($6 trillion) and Hong Kong ($4.8 trillion).

India’s market cap to GDP is 1.2x, which is still lower compared to the major economies such as the US and Japan which are at 1.9x and 1.4x, respectively.