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By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -MSCI added five Indian companies to its Global Standard Index late on Wednesday, a move that brokerage Nuvama said would lift the country's weightage on the index to 20%, further narrowing the gap with China.
MSCI said there would be 156 Indian stocks in the index, but that is only one-fourth of China's 598, signalling scope for further inclusion of Indian stocks on the index.
The changes will take place after the markets close on Nov. 25, MSCI said.
The inclusion of the stocks will lift India's weightage in the index to a record 19.8% from 19.3% earlier, narrowing the gap with China, which has slipped to 26.8% from 27%, Nuvama Alternative and Quantitative Research estimated.
It will also likely attract $2.5 billion in passive inflows into India's equity markets, Nuvama said.
China has the highest weightage in the MSCI Global Standard index, while India has been in second place since the end of 2021.
Air conditioner maker Voltas, realty developer Oberoi Realty, stock exchange operator BSE, Kalyan Jewellers, and drug maker Alkem Laboratories are the latest additions to the index.
Indian markets saw inflows of about $3 billion into equities after the previous MSCI rebalancing in August when seven stocks were added.
"We remain extremely bullish on India, especially with active participation from mutual funds and high net worth individuals (HNIs)/retail investors, and anticipate many more inclusions in the emerging markets index," said Abhilash Pagaria, head of Nuvama research.
Seven existing stocks, including top private lender HDFC Bank and Tata Power, saw an increase in their weightage.
HDFC Bank is now the highest-weighted Indian stock in the MSCI indices at 7.08%, surpassing Reliance Industries' 6.08%.
No Indian companies have been removed from the MSCI Global Standard Index so far in November.
Additionally, around 13 firms, including Eureka Forbes, Indegene, and PC Jeweller, were added to the MSCI Small Cap Index, bringing the total number of small-cap stocks to 525.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan)
