Major players Lenskart, Groww, Adani Energy join MSCI India Index

Mumbai: MSCI has announced changes to its India indices, with four stocks added to and three excluded from the MSCI India Standard Index. Following the rejig, India's weight in the index will rise marginally to 11.9% from 11.8%, while the number of constituents will increase to 166 from 165. The changes will take effect on August 31, MSCI said in an announcement early on August 13.

Index changes result in flows into these stocks because trillions of dollars in global passive funds shape their portfolios based on their benchmarks. When a stock is added or removed, index-linked ETFs and mutual funds are forced to buy or sell to mirror the index composition.

Lenskart Solutions, Adani Energy Solutions, Billionbrains Garage Ventures (Groww)and Laurus Labs will be added to the MSCI India Standard Index. Astral, Balkrishna Industries and SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd will be excluded. Astral and Balkrishna Industries, however, will move to the MSCI India Smallcap Index.


According to Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, the four inclusions could attract potential inflows of up to $600 million. The exclusion of Astral, Balkrishna Industries and SBI Cards is expected to result in net outflows of $140 million-$170 million, the brokerage said.

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The MSCI India Smallcap Index will see 13 inclusions and 19 exclusions, taking the number of constituents to 455 from 461. India's weight in the index will rise to 22.2% from 22.0%.

MSCI has also changed the weightages of several existing constituents in the Standard Index. Eternal, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports & SEZ, JSW Energy, Adani Power, GMR Airports and Swiggy will see their weightages increase, while Reliance Industries, Jio Financial Services, Indian Hotels, Aditya Birla Capital and Colgate-Palmolive India will see their weightages reduced.

Nuvama estimates that Eternal could attract nearly $674 million in inflows as its free float is expected to nearly double. Adani Enterprises could see inflows of just over $200 million, while Adani Ports & SEZ, JSW Energy, Adani Power, GMR Airports and Swiggy could see inflows ranging from $13 million to $77 million.