ET NEWS

Mumbai: India's equity valuations are trading slightly below their own historical averages but remain elevated compared with regional peers.The benchmark Nifty currently trades at a price to earnings (PE) ratio-a valuation measure--of around 21.97 times earnings, below its five- and 10-year averages of about 24.4 and 24.8, respectively. However, the premium over Asia remains stark: Hong Kong's Hang Seng trades at 11.7, South Korea's Kospi is below 13, and South Africa sits at around 12.7. While the PE ratio shows valuations are lower than long-term averages, it comes as no comfort to investors as equities here still are at a premium to other markets in the region-a concern amplified by slowing earnings growth.Valuations of India's stock market have long traded above its regional counterparts, but that rarely dimmed investor appetite thanks to steady growth prospects. Now, as cracks emerge in the corporate earnings narrative, several foreign investors are paring exposure and delaying deployments. 123840779 Nominal GDP Growth "Valuations have begun mattering now because nominal GDP growth has slipped into single digits compared to around 12-13%," said Ritesh Jain, founder, Pinetree Macro, a global macro asset allocation fund. "Corporate profitability is a function of nominal GDP. So, for an overseas fund manager looking at various markets, a country with slowing nominal growth and rich valuations is far less appealing despite its inherent strengths."India is the second most expensive major market after the US, prompting foreign fund managers to consider cheaper Chinese equities of late. European and Japanese equities are among the other markets that are gaining in popularity, though the US remains the most preferred despite rich valuations.Fund managers said headline valuation metrics can be misleading without considering sector weights in Indian benchmarks."The composition of Indian indices must be taken into account while looking at valuations," said Nilesh Shah, managing director, Kotak Mutual Fund. "If the Sensex and Nifty are full of expensive consumer names and there are fewer commodity players, it's bound to push up valuation levels. If we were to remove some of the consumer names, our valuation, the valuations are around averages on a historical basis."

Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Thursday spoke to Radosław Sikorski, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland on recent developments pertaining to Poland’s security.Underlining that India favors an early end to hostilities, Jaishankar also highlighted the need for a durable solution for the Ukraine conflict.Alongside India, the foreign ministers of Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania issued a joint statement on Thursday to condemn Russia over Wednesday's intrusion of drones into Polish airspace, calling it a 'deliberate and unprecedented provocation'.This comes after Polish authorities reported that the NATO and EU member's airspace was violated 19 times on Wednesday, with at least three drones shot down as Poland and NATO allies scrambled jets.

BSE has cautioned investors against dealing in Elegant Floriculture & Agrotech India and Spright Agro scrips based on recommendations coming from unauthorized or unregistered entities through Whatsapp, Telegram, SMS, calls, social media platforms or by any other means.It said that investors should remain cautious against getting trapped through claims of high or assured returns from trading in the securities market.Elegant Floriculture & Agrotech India is a penny stock with market capitalization of Rs 16 crore on the BSE. The stock today ended at Rs 8.07, falling by Rs 0.42 or 4.95% over the Wednesday closing price. The stock today hit a 5% lower circuit of Rs 8.07. There was a spurt in its volumes by over 1.10 times in today's trade. In another media release, the exchange warned against certain entities that are allegedly engaged in unauthorized activities like investment/trading recommendations without research analyst registration.These entities are Vijay Wealth Advisor, Baadshah Badshah Broking, Baadshah Broking Baadshah, Pankaj Bhardwaj Way2laabh TM Pankaj Bhardwaj Way2laabh.All these entities are operating through their Telegram channels."Please note that these individuals/entities are neither registered as members nor as Authorized Person of any registered member of the BSE Limited. Further they are either providing securities market tips to investors or assured/guaranteed returns on investment in stock market or offering to handle trading accounts of investors by asking investors to share their Login ID/Password," the BSE release said.The investors can verify the registration of exchange intermediaries by visiting the BSE website.BSE has also advised investors to not share their trading credentials such as user ID/password with anyone for trading in their account/handling of the portfolio.The exchanges and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have been warning investors against participating in such types of prohibited schemes.The participation is at investors' own risk, cost and consequences as such schemes are neither approved nor endorsed by the exchanges.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)