Goldman, BoFA Merrill Lynch upgrade India

Though Indian markets tanked on risk aversion cues from global investors, foreign brokerages led by Goldman Sachs, have turned bullish on the country.

According to analysts, the slowdown in developed markets after downgrade of US security, coupled with decent valuations makes emerging markets like India attractive from a medium-to-long term perspective.

Seven Goldman analysts, in their note yesterday said they expected a turnaround in India's macro cycle, which, along with lower oil prices, lowered valuations, and progress in policy reforms would benefit local equities.

''Given recent developments in the macro landscape, we are moving India to a market weight (neutral) stance from underweight, which we have held for over a year. We believe enough progress has been made to warrant a relatively more optimistic view,'' they wrote.

Nomura and UBS had earlier raised their weightage on India last month amid reducing domestic concerns with RBS too positive on India, which it expects would outperform global markets over the next 12 months.

Crude fell 17 per cent in the last month due on concerns related to global slowdown amidst debt crisis in Europe and US which is a positive for the Indian markets.