MUMBAI: India is the most preferred market to invest in now in Asia, a survey of global fund managersby BofA Securities found. A large number of these fund managers believe that India would be the biggest beneficiary of the tariff-related realignments. India replaced Japan, which is now at the second spot among the most favoured destinations for investing in Asia.China is at the third spot, the survey found.“India emerges as the most favoured market, perceived as a likely beneficiary of the supply chain realignments following the effects of tariffs,” the BofA Securities survey noted. “Japan relinquishes the top spot, while China rises to the third spot from the lowest rank in the previous month. Thailand remains the least preferred market.”On the sectoral front in India, infrastructure and consumption continue to be the primary themes that investors are keenly monitoring, it said. “In the Asia ex-Japan portfolio, participants are overweight in telecom and software, while avoiding energy, materials, and consumer discretionary ex-retailing/ecommerce,” the survey noted. “The outlook on semiconductors improved compared to the previous month, with a net 42% expecting a softening in the semiconductors cycle, a decrease from 59% last month.” At the global level, fund managers indicated that the growth outlook was exhibiting initial signs of recovery. “Currently, a net 59% of respondents anticipate a weaker global economy, a notable improvement from last month’s most pessimistic reading of 82%.”
