Taper tantrum: Indian stock market likely to underperform, says Chris Wood

The major risk to Indian equities, according to him, is the arrival of a new Covid variant, which he says the country shares with the rest of the world.

Indian stock markets are likely to underperform their global peers in case of a global risk-off triggered by a taper scare, believes Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies. Yet, he remains structurally positive and has hiked allocation to Indian equities by two percentage points (2 ppt). 

Currently, 31 per cent of Wood's Asia ex-Japan thematic equity portfolio for long-only absolute-return investors is in India and includes marquee names such as Reliance Industries (RIL), HDFC, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Godrej Properties and ICICI Bank.

“GREED & fear remains structurally positive on the Indian market