Indian stocks 2nd best performers among BRIC

Following a sharp recovery in the equity markets, Indian stocks have emerged as the second best performers as compared to their peers in three other BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia and China -- giving close to 20 per cent return in April.

According to an analysis of MSCI Barra indices, a measure of returns from various stock markets across the world for foreign investors, Indian stocks have given the second highest return after Russia among the four BRIC countries during last month.

Indian stocks have provided a return of nearly 19.54 per cent in April, while China and Brazilian markets have given 10.87 per cent and 18.89 per cent respectively.

However, Russian equities have managed to outperform the Indian stocks in the month as it provided investors with a positive return of over 21 per cent, as per the analysis of performances of Morgan Stanley Composite Indices for various nations.

The 30-share benchmark index of Indian stocks, Sensex, gained close to 1,700 points in the month of April to settle at 11,403.25 points on April 29.

Indian stocks have even outperformed the MSCI Barra's emerging market index, which includes all the developing world markets, giving returns to foreign investors to the tune of 16.28 per cent in the month. After losing nearly 50 per cent in the past one year, Indian stocks have gained close to 18 per cent in the first four months.

Further, Indian equities have provided negative returns of over five per cent in the past three years, while taking into account the last five years, they had given positive 11.26 per cent returns and just about 12 per cent in the 10 years period.

Besides, the emerging markets other than the BRIC nations have also performed significantly better in the past month with Indonesian stocks giving the highest returns of over 30 per cent in the period.

Other emerging markets which provided around 20 per cent returns in the period include -- Korea, Hungary, Turkey and Poland.

Meanwhile, the developed markets have also performed significantly better in the reviewed month with the US, Japan, Austria, UK giving returns between nine to 12 per cent.

The best performing developed markets in April were Finland (23 per cent returns) and Sweden (22 per cent).