MARKETS SAYING, “HOWDY!” TO NEW HIGHS
The euphoric spirit of Friday continues!
The market jumped up 1300 points in the opening bell session andd the overall mood on Dalal Street remains very upbeat.
The celebration is probably more of a carry forward of yesterday night’s “howdy” event at Houston. People just can’t stop talking about it. The talk and mood is all about “rock star” Modi.
Irrespective of one’s likes or dislikes for Modi, there is no shred of doubt that yesterday night he made every Indian proud. His speech, his body language and his camaraderie with Trump, the victory lap, walking holding hands with Trump; everything he did made each and every one of us very proud.
No Indian leader, barring Mahatma Gandhi has caught the imagination of the world so much. For once, it looked as though Trump was stumped, lost for words and that in itself is a huge thing. This is why we should always have a leader whose oratory skills are his biggest strength.
Well, one can take all the achievements listed out by Modi in his speech with a pinch of salt and we know making toilets does not mean people stop defecating in the public. Making a toilet is one thing but having running water and sanitation is something. So when Modi lists out statistics saying that India will be defecation free by 2nd Oct, he probably looks only at statistics but not the ground reality.
But then when you are on foreign soil and being watched by some billion people on the planet, you do not want to see him wash dirty linen in a stadium.
At home, the sentiments had just got the shove and push that was required through the corporate tax cuts. Today consumer stocks continue to remain in the reckoning. So naturally, Modi was on a roll. The huge difference between the speeches of Modi and Trump – the US President spoke a lot, with statistical data to show how employment had been generated, not just by Americans but by Indian companies for Americans too. His speech was more about employment generated, which in turn boosted the US economy. On the other hand, Modi’s speech was more about social and welfare issues and on the topic of economy, he mentioned a lot of things but nothing on employment. Trump’s message was that the Indian companies making in USA meant employment for Americans; he has ensured that but Modi could not replicate this in India.
This show of power by Modi in Houston is good for the market as it would have surely brought in the much needed confidence among the FIIs. His “friendship” with Trump, on display for the world to see is most certainly reassuring and sends out the right message.
Modi’s foreign visits – in his first term, he visited 92 countries, in 48 foreign visits, have not really translated into anything huge for India, most certainly not for his pet project, ‘Make in India.’ But what his visits have done, for the Indian diaspora living abroad is create a sense of pride in their home country, a feeling that he is there to save, to bring about change, to erase the picture of poverty and impoverished India from the minds of the world. The NRIs today feel they are being looked at with respect by foreigners, as people coming from a developing country.
The teeming 55,000 or more NRIs who were at the Houston stadium do not really care about India’s seat on the UN Security Council or about its competition with China in the economic race or on our global stance on the environment. For them and all of us living in India and abroad, what mattered was that an Indian leader was given this respect, the recognition by the world’s most powerful President; this show of adulation and rock star reverence has never been seen. US will most certainly benefit through oil, LNG and defence orders; in that context India might not have any direct material benefit but for an Indian leader to hit the headlines all over the world, this event was great.
Today, the world knows India and more importantly, Modi; now that is a huge sentiment booster.