Mumbai: Global investors believe that the best equity opportunities in 2014 and over the next 10 years will be in India, with broader Asian markets in the second place.
According to a global investment sentiment survey done by Franklin Templeton in 22 countries, 82 per cent of investors in India think the domestic stock market will rise in 2014, with nearly half believing it will surge significantly.
“Indian investors remain optimistic about the coming year, even though the prior year’s performance did not meet their expectations. Inves-tors think that best equity opportunities in 2014 and over the next 10 years will be in India, with broader Asian markets in the second place,” it said.
In the fixed income segment, investors think that India will offer the best-fixed income returns in 2014 and over the next 10 years.
The survey polled 11,113 investors in 22 countries across Africa, Asia Pacific, Americas and Europe on their current attitudes towards investing and their expectations for 2014 and the decade ahead.
Interestingly, domestic investors remain optimistic about this year despite the subdued performance of the equity market in the last five years.
The survey also shows that the Indian investor believes property, stocks and precious metals to be the top three performing asset classes in 2014 and over the next 10 years.
Unlike 2013, Indian investors are more positive about the performance of property and less positive about the performance of precious metals in the coming year and over the next 10 years.
In spite of this optimism, the survey said 59 per cent of Indian investors plan to be conservative in their investment approach in 2014 compared to 52 per cent in 2013.
On the other hand, around 52 per cent of investors across the world are planning to become more conservative with their strategies this year.
“In the long term, the greatest risk investors run is remaining too risk-averse for long. Building portfolios based on short-term phenomena, not long-term realities, could put them in danger of falling well-short of their goals,” said, Harshendu Bindal, president, Franklin Templeton Investments, India.
Globally, investors’ outlook for their local stock market this year was more optimistic, with 62 per cent believing the ma-rket will experience positive performance.
