Goyal said in the past ten years of PM Modi’s government, the market capitalization of Indian stocks crossed USD 5 trillion…reports Asian Lite News
The BJP on Thursday hit back at Rahul Gandhi’s allegations relating to connection between “BJP, exit pollsters and dubious foreign investors” and accused the Congress leader of “conspiring to mislead market investors”.
Addressing a press conference, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Congress leader “has still not overcome the opposition’s defeat” in the Lok Sabha elections. Several opposition parties had come together to form the INDIA bloc to take on the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha polls.
Rahul Gandhi had alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had given “investment advice” to people during the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls and there was a loss of lakhs of crores to retail investors also due to “fake exit polls”. He demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the “biggest stock market scam”.
Goyal said in the past ten years of PM Modi’s government, the market capitalization of Indian stocks crossed USD 5 trillion.
“Rahul Gandhi has still not overcome the loss in the Lok Sabha Elections. Now, he is conspiring to mislead the market investors. Today, India has become the fifth-largest economy,” he said.
The union minister alleged that Rahul Gandhi wants to instill “fear in the minds of both the domestic and global investors, so that they do not invest”.
“We all know equity markets react to various estimates and predictions during any elections, or for that matter any forecasts by banks and institutions. Ups and downs are normal even during a non-event,” he said.
In May this year, market caps of both BSE and NSE-listed companies touched USD 5 trillion. Market capitalisation or market cap is the total value of a company’s stock, derived at by multiplying the stock price by the number of its outstanding shares.
Indian stocks market entered the league of top five stock markets globally, Goyal said, adding that m-cap of PSU companies has risen four-fold over the past years.
Indian investors, particularly the retail investors, have benefitted from the rise in stock indices over the years, he said.
“Retail investors are not just bystanders today, but are participating in it,” he said.
FPI holdings in India was 21 per cent during UPA days and it has dipped to now 16 per cent, he said. At the same time, Indians investing in stock markets have gone up.
“India is considered a well-regulated market, and SEBI has received several appreciations worldwide,” Goyal added.
He said India was referred to as “among fragile 5” during the rule of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and that the country was now the fifth biggest economy.
The term Fragile 5 was coined by a Morgan Stanley analyst in 2013, which referred to a set of five emerging countries, including India, whose economy was not doing well back then. The other four countries were Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey.
“The size of the mutual fund industry was only Rs 10 lakh crore in 2014, today it has increased more than 5 times to Rs 56 lakh crore. Through mutual funds, Indian investors especially small investors are taking advantage of this growing market today and these small retail investors have ensured that India’s ownership today has instantly become more than the ownership of institutional investors…,” Goyal said. (ANI)
Congress CWC meet to discuss poll results
The Congress has called a meeting of its Working Committee on June 8. As per the information, the meeting will be chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The meeting will be held at Congress headquarters on Saturday.
This comes a day after the leaders of the INDIA bloc held a meeting at Kharge’s residence to discuss the strategy to form the next government.
The Congress has emerged as the second-largest party in the election and improved its tally to 99, from 52 in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
Top Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, among others are likely to participate in the deliberations.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to take oath for third successive term in office on June 9, sources said.
BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a successive third term in office in the results of Lok Sabha elections declared on June 4.
Sources said PM Modi’s swearing-in ceremony may take place at 6 pm on June 9.
Earlier there was speculation that the swearing-in ceremony of the new NDA government led by PM Modi would take place on Saturday.
There is no official confirmation yet of the date of the oath-taking ceremony. Leaders of parties in the National Democratic Alliance held a meeting on Wednesday and elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader.
PM Modi later said that NDA will work towards building a developed India.
“Met our valued NDA partners. Ours is an alliance that will further national progress and fulfil regional aspirations. We will serve the 140 crore people of India and work towards building a Viksit Bharat,” PM Modi said in a tweet on Wednesday. (ANI)
According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong improvement, winning 99 seats. While the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won 292 seats, the INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions. (ANI)
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