Unshaken by the rise in US interest rates, Pakistan's equity market continues to beat India's market by a wide margin. In the last twelve months, Global X MSCI + Pakistan ETF was up 16 percent, beating India's and China's comparable ETF's, which were in negative territory for the year.
That's contrary to what one would have expected. India has become more competitive in the global economy recently, rising by 16 rankings in 2016 to the 39th position, while it is still at 122th position, near the bottom of the World Forum ranking. Pakistan has been lagging behind both India and China in key macroeconomic metrics like GDP growth rates and unemployment. Still, there are a few good explanations for the Pakistan's market lead over India and China.