Indian markets over US stocks? Here’s why Jefferies’ Chris Wood remains bullish with a long-term outlook

Christopher Wood, a US-based investment banking group, Jefferies’ global strategist, recommended that global investors increase their exposure in the Indian stock market and sell US stocks amid the uncertainties looming over the capital markets due to Trump tariffs, as per a Business Standard report.

Wood reiterated his bullish stance on the Indian stock market in a recent podcast, highlighting that India is currently in a position similar to that of China at the beginning of the 20th century. GDP per capita and the dynamic entrepreneur culture are among the reasons behind Wood’s stance.

“So for the last 20 years, I’ve been saying the Indian markets the best, the best market to own in emerging markets, I would say globally, because India is now in a sort of similar to position that China was the beginning of this century in terms of the demographics, in terms of the GDP per capita, and you have a very good dynamic entrepreneurial culture in India, you’ve got a huge number of interesting companies,” said Wood at the Money Maze Podcast.

Indian stock market

The benchmark indices in the Indian stock markets witnessed a volatile start to the financial year 2025-26 after US President Donald Trump announced his ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on April 2, 2025.

After a global stock market crash, the benchmark Nifty 50 index gained 5.99 per cent, and the BSE Sensex gained 5.61 per cent in the last five stock market sessions. 

“Emerging market global investors are barely overweight India, not because they don’t like India, but because the valuations are high and the market’s been driven by domestic money,” said Wood, highlighting how this serves as a good opportunity to eye investing into the Indian market for a “Long-term” return.

Sell US Stocks?

According to a Mint report earlier this month, Wood also flagged the US stocks as a growing risk of a “waterfall decline” and called the base case scenario as trade tensions and policy missteps mount.

“That does not mean that Trump cannot generate new positive momentum by the approach already suggested, namely dramatically scaling back tariffs and refocusing on tax cuts and deregulation, but it does mean that the base case remains US underperforming other stock markets in the context of a weakening US dollar and a bearish Treasury bond market,” he said, cited the news portal.

The global strategist also suggested that in the Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative-return portfolio, investors can further reduce 1 per cent weightage in Taiwan, to increase the same in the Indian markets. 

“One change will also be made to the Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative-return portfolio. The weighting in India will be increased by a further one percentage point by shaving further the weighting in Taiwan,” said Wood in his note to investors.

Despite the tariff fears looming over the global markets, analysts similar to Wood, remain bullish on the Indian stock market and suggest investors to buy the dips with a long term focus in sight.

“High-frequency data signals slower consumption and government capital expenditure. However, recent fiscal and monetary stimulus is expected to boost momentum in 2025. The one-year forward price/earnings ratio is back below its 10-year average. We favour large caps over mid- and small-caps for their resilience and robust fundamentals,” Mark Matthews told the news portal.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.