Neither oil, nor elections, the US Fed holds most sway over India's stocks

While the US central bank's influence on emerging assets is hardly an unknown phenomenon, India's $2 trillion stock market has also been whipsawed in recent months by homegrown narratives

For all the domestic drivers of India’s stocks -- from oil to elections to shadow banking shakeouts -- the U.S. Federal Reserve holds the most sway, according to the nation’s biggest money manager.

Sankaran Naren, who helps manage 3.1 trillion rupees ($44 billion) as chief investment officer at ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co., says investors need to brace for a run of constrained returns that will last until the Fed’s Jerome Powell makes a policy U-turn. Key Indian equity indexes are up less than 10 per cent this year, and gauges of mid- and small-sized companies are poised for their