Indian investors have emerged as the most optimistic lot in Asia and along with their Chinese counterparts have driven an increase in the region's overall investor sentiment in the first quarter of this year, a latest survey says.
The quarterly Investor Dashboard Sentiment survey by global financial services group ING shows a significant increase of 75 per cent in investor sentiment in India in the first three months of 2009 as compared to the fourth quarter last year.
"Despite a slowdown in global economies and volatility in international financial markets, the ING Investor Dashboard Sentiment Index for India reflects the highest level of investor optimism across Asia," the survey stated.
The India investor index has jumped 75 per cent to 133 in Q1 this year from 76 in fourth quarter of 2008.
The survey indicated that Indian investors were confident about the economy, backed by assurances from the business community and the government.
"Compared with its neighbours in Asia, India's growth of recent years has been driven predominantly by domestic consumption as well as domestic investment. This pattern and growth insulates economy from set backs felt in both global & regional economies," ING Investment Management India acting CEO Navin Suri said.
Moreover, the twin engines of growth in Asia --India and China -- have driven the investor sentiment in the continent with their strong upswing in the first quarter of 2009 investor sentiment index scores.
The overall pan-Asia (excluding-Japan) ING Investor Dashboard Sentiment index has increased to 85 in the first quarter of this year from 73 in the fourth quarter of 2008, despite the ongoing global financial and economic crisis.
The jump is the first quarter-on-quarter increase in investor sentiment since the index was introduced in the third quarter of 2007, and has moved the index from 'pessimistic' category back into the 'neutral' category, it stated.
China investor index increased by over 20 per cent to 124 from 103 in the fourth quarter last year.
Interestingly, investors in India were most confident about their job security vis-à-vis those in other markets, with 64 per cent claiming that the current economic situation has no impact on their job security, the survey revealed.
Investors were also most optimistic about their household financial situation with more than half (53 per cent) saying their household financial situation would improve in the next quarter.
Besides, 65 per cent investors were also the most optimistic among their counterparts in Asia about the impact of government policy on investment in the second quarter of 2009.