Markets @ 9 – The brighter side

Recently, the Indian Stock Exchanges implemented an Extra Trading Hour for investors, which has largely been opposed on several grounds. However, if we consider the brighter side of this development, it could work in favour of the Indian economy. This is because, apart from the fact that the Indian stock markets will now relatively be in a better position to react to global information flow, i.e. closer in tandem to Asian markets which open earlier because of the time zone differential; extended hours could also lead to higher participation interest by FIIs resulting in higher capital inflows. This would be a positive for the Indian economy, which is a capital-starved nation with the potential to grow at 10% per annum. Thus, additional long-term capital inflows will only work in favour of one-and-all Indians.

By Hitesh Agrawal, Head-Research, Angel Broking