Indian investors most optimistic in Asia: ING

Indian investors continue to be the most optimistic lot in Asia and as much as 84 per cent of those surveyed expect the stock market to rise in the third quarter of 2009, according to global financial services group ING.

As per the Quarterly Investor Dashboard Sentiment survey by ING, investors in the surveyed Asian countries believed that economic situation has improved and 93 per cent Indians feel conditions would further improve in the third quarter.

"The Indian investor index jumped to a record high of 182 for second quarter of 2009 from 133 from first quarter of 2009 amid anticipated strong GDP growth and stock market improvements," the ING report stated.

In the first quarter of this year as well, investor index had jumped 75 per cent to 133 from 76 in Q4 2008.

Overall, there was a significant 81 per cent upswing in the investor sentiment in Asia for the first half of 2009 and a 55 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase for Q2 2009 from Q1 2009, the survey said.

Investors in India have emerged optimistic in almost all the key performance indicators including household financial situation, impact of US economy, property prices and stock marker recovery.

"84 per cent of the Indian investors feel that the stock market will further rise in Q3 2009, reflecting bullishness and reinforcing the optimistic outlook for the next quarter," the report said.

The ING Investor Dashboard pan-Asia sentiment index is derived from the median of 10 markets -- China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Further, India also marks the biggest improvement in the household financial situation to as much as 76 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 from 41 per cent in the first quarter.

"With a strong economic growth, concern for job security is the least in India (seven per cent as compared to 49 per cent Asia Pacific average). Also, 43 per cent of Indian investors plan to invest more in Q3 09," the report added.

More and more investors felt that the performance of stock market has more influence on investment decisions and significantly fewer investors in India (15 per cent) said that their investment decisions would be affected by the US economy in the next quarter.

The upswing indicates continued strong investor confidence amidst the run up in the financial markets since the start of the year, it added.

Further, 69 per cent of the investors in this quarter felt that the residential real estate prices would further rise in the next quarter as compared to only 28 per cent of investors in the last quarter, the report revealed.

Moreover, gold and investment in real estate remain the popular tools for investment by the Indian investors, it added.