India Reclaims Its Position As The World's Fifth Largest Stock Market

After losing that position to France in January, India has reclaimed it as the world's fifth largest stock market, with foreign investors snapping up the Asian nation's shares.

As of Friday, India's market capitalization stood at $3.3 trillion, aided in part by a rebound in Adani Group's stocks following a heavy selloff following a short seller report earlier in the year. Meanwhile, France lost more than $100 billion in market value last week as luxury goods companies such as LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE and Vivendi SE suffered a sell-off amid concerns about a slowdown in China and the United States.  

Global funds are piling into Indian stocks as China's slowing economic recovery causes a rotation. Foreign investors have added $5.7 billion to India's stock market since the beginning of April, drawn in by a stable earnings outlook and one of the world's fastest GDP growth rates among the world's largest economies.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased the weighting of Indian stocks in its Asia Pacific ex-Japan model portfolio last week to reflect the Chinese stock market's disappointments following a strong rally earlier this year.

The S&P BSE Sensex Index has bounced back more than 9% after briefly entering correction territory in mid-March, closing in on record high levels. A rebound in Adani’s stocks has gathered steam turn after a court-appointed panel said it found no conclusive evidence of stock price manipulation as alleged by US short seller Hindenburg Research.

Adani’s 10 listed entities added around $15 billion to their market value last week to trim their losses post-Hindenburg’s report to $105 billion from as high as $153 billion earlier.