‘Equities better than bonds’

INDIA’S stocks were a better bet than bonds as the fastest inflation in Asia eroded fixed-income returns and deterred interest rate cuts, Citigroup said on Friday. “If you’re talking about the next six to 12 months, yes, the preference would be for equities over bonds,” Pankaj Vaish, the Mumbai-based head of markets for south Asia at the third-biggest US bank, said. “It’s hard to expect a huge return out of bonds immediately because we have to wait for this whole disinflation process to yield results.” Equities would be the better performers should Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver on a pledge to revive India’s economy, Vaish said. Debt gains are seen to be limited as the central bank will probably hold borrowing costs until mid-2015 to quell price pressures. – Bloomberg