India’s Leading BFSI and FinTech Companies 2021

28 Global Market: Overview & Outlook Primarymarket trends remainedmixed during 2019. While primarymarket activity in the equity segment remained subdued in Asia and the Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME) regions for most part of the year, the Americas region witnessed a strong upsurge. Despite a slowdown in the global economy, the equity markets around the world rallied during 2019 with global market capitalization rising by 22.8% from US$ 74.7 tn in 2018 to US$ 91.7 tn in 2019. Region-wise, market capitalization of the EAME, Asia and Americas regions rose by 32.3%, 21.0 % and 19.3%, respectively, during 2019. Globally, turnover on the stock exchanges (equity cash segment) declined by 9.2% in 2019 to US$ 87.1 tn from US$ 96 tn in 2018. Region-wise, Asia logged an increase in turnover by 12.9% y-o-y, while Americas and EAMA regions witnessed a y-o-y drop of 19.3% and 14.3%, respectively. The year 2020 proved to be a year of unprecedented events and challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, presidential elections in the United States, Brexit and increased tensions between United States and China, to name a few. With the pandemic casting a shadow over the entire world, the ensuing lockdowns and social-distancing measures among others caused a severe collapse in the global economic activity and growth during the first half of 2020. Many businesses were shut down temporarily, widespread travel and mobility restrictions were imposed, bringing about financial markets turbulence, eroding consumer confidence amidst heightened uncertainty. Globally, stock markets tumbled over 30% during the peak of the pandemic amid extreme volatility of equity markets and oil prices, while credit spreads on non-investment grade debt widened sharply as investors turned risk averse. However, by July-end, most indices had posted quick recovery to pre-pandemic levels, reflecting strong market sentiment. Towards the year-end, positivity around news of development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines, recovery in economic activity and the outcome of U.S. presidential elections served as tailwinds, driving markets to end the year on the higher side. In November 2020, global market capitalisation surpassed $100 tn for the first time, ending the year at US$ 109.2 tn, up 19.7% when compared with the end of 2019. Equity markets saw record-high levels of value traded (53.7%) and volumes (56.0%) in 2020 as compared with the previous year. The number of new listings through IPOs and investment flows through IPOs increased significantly, by 25.7% and 36.8%, respectively, as compared with 2019, reflecting how exchanges across the world have continued to play an active role in supporting their underlying economies in these challenging times. On the flipside, renewed concerns about new variants and fresh waves of the pandemic seem to have curbed market outlook and sentiment. The strength of economic recovery is likely to vary significantly across various countries depending upon their access to medical interventions, vaccines, policy implementations and other factors. Amid these uncertainties, global economy is projected to grow 5.5% in 2021 and 4.2% in 2022 according to the World Economic Forum. Investor sentiment has also been overly optimistic on heels of vaccine announcements, somarkets are likely to be vulnerable to any negative news, going forward. Among near-term risks, escalating cases prompting the need to reimpose lockdowns, logistical difficulties for vaccine distribution and subdued economic growth as governments withdraw supportivemeasures could hurt market sentiment. Other than this, geopolitical issues around China, Iran or Russia could also be a focal point as the new Biden administration takes charge in the United States. Securities Markets Dun & Bradstreet