India has an overcrowded stock market but continues to pull money from Nomura

Calling India's stock market overcrowded and its economy limping due to drop in infrastructure investment, Nomura Asset Management has said that there is still something about Asia’s third largest economy because of which it can't stop buying the nation's shares.

Vipul Mehta, Nomura’s head of investment for Asian equities outside of Japan, told Bloomberg that private insurers and diagnostic firms offer opportunities for investors that chase businesses riding on services boom.

Mehta further added that capital spending has to be increased so that growth can be sustained in India, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, lest it risks remaining a "one-trick pony" which is driven solely by consumption.

In the past two years, Nomura's assets in India have tripled and now stand at $3 billion, which has led to investors getting a 40% gain in the last fiscal.

"The more important part is the depth of companies and the number of opportunities. India keeps going along in a very narrow range but it is also resilient on the way down. It is a stable, consumption-driven economy. Growth won't fall below a certain level," he said on India's obvious growth potential.

On being asked if India is an overcrowded market, he said, "India has been an overcrowded trade for very long. It's not so simple in terms of everyone going there and getting a free ride. Within the country there are sectors which do well and those that don't. It's all about companies that capture those opportunities."

He further said that to kick-start infrastructure spending, the bureaucracy needs faster and sensible decision making, and PM’s plan for affordable housing can come across as a game changer.

On Modi and his way of running the country, he said, "he's doing a fair job. All of us were guilty of thinking he has a magic wand with which he would solve every problem India has and transform it into a first-world country overnight. Even the government underestimated the problems. They have taken much longer than one would have thought to get their act together."

(Image source AwesomeAJ)