The higher buying in Indian equities will see the Nifty benchmark rise to 29,000 points by the end of 2026, it said

PTI New Delhi

American brokerage Goldman Sachs (GS) on Monday upgraded its views on Indian equities to "overweight" after a subpar show in 2025 and estimated more interest in stock buying going forward. The higher buying in Indian equities will see the NSE's 50-share Nifty benchmark rise to 29,000 points, up 14 per cent by the end of 2026, it said.

The brokerage said equities have been up by a "modest" 3 per cent in 2025 in what has otherwise been one of the strongest years for emerging markets, which have seen over 30 per cent rally. "This significant underperformance - the largest in the past two decades was triggered by a mix of peak starting valuations and cyclical growth and profit slowdown expectations," Goldman Sachs said.

The brokerage said it had downgraded its views on India in October last year because of these factors and added that it is reversing its stance to be "overweight" on India now. "As the year progressed and earnings cuts materialised, tariff headwinds soured sentiment further and led to large foreign de-risking. We now see a case for Indian equities to perform better over the coming year," it added.

The growth supportive policies, including RBI's rate cuts, improved liquidity and bank deregulation, earnings revivals and significant under-positioning in the market which has seen an USD 30 billion selloff by foreign investors were cited as the reason for the upgrade. The brokerage said it favours stocks in the financial, consumer, oil marketing companies and defence to be better bets in the next year.