Could India’s Business Climate Be Improving?
By Sarah SandsFeb. 27 2018, Updated 4:35 p.m. ET
India’s service activity in January 2018
According to Markit Economics, India’s service PMI (purchasing managers’ index) rose in January 2018, to 51.7 from 50.9 in December 2017, beating the preliminary market estimate of 51.5.
The service PMI entered into a second straight month of expansion in January. The stronger service PMI was due to the following factors:
- production volume and output rose at a faster rate
- new business orders grew at a faster rate
- employment in the service sector rose
Market impact
Improvement in India’s service sector could indicate that investor confidence is also improving. Higher global client demand mainly helped India’s service activity.
Previously, we saw that major ETFs tracking India’s (INDA) economy gained strongly in January 2018. However, small-cap stocks’ performance suggested some nervousness. The iShares MSCI India Small-Cap ETF (SMIN) and the VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap ETF (SCIF), which track the performance of India’s small-cap stocks, fell 1% and 2.2%, respectively. In the next part of this series, we’ll analyze Mexico’s manufacturing PMI in January 2018.
