India is entering a multi-year infra super-cycle, with the Nifty Infrastructure index delivering 2 times returns of the Nifty 50 over the past three years, a report said on Tuesday.
India's infrastructure equities have evolved from defensive to high‑beta, high‑alpha and could nearly double in market size by 2030 to around Rs 25 lakh crore, the report from Smallcase said.
Analysts said that the growth is driven government spending and private capex revival -- helped by PLI schemes, global supply-chain shifts, and manufacturing incentives.
Smallcase estimated that Rs 1 of infrastructure capex delivers roughly Rs 2.5 -- Rs 3 of GDP impact.
Markets are likely to maintain a high beta to infrastructure execution; earnings visibility across engineering, construction, industrials, cement, power equipment and logistics remain robust, the report noted.
InvITs growth will be underpinned by predictable, contract-based revenue streams offering pre‑tax yields of about 10–12 per cent and post‑tax returns near 7–9 per cent generally higher than many conventional fixed-income instruments.
The Nifty Infrastructure Index returned 14.5 per cent, 82.8 per cent and 181.2 per cent over the past 1, 3 and 5 years, outperforming the Nifty 50's 10.5 per cent, 41.5 per cent and 100.3 per cent, the report said.
"Though Infrastructure investment in India Although these assets can experience temporary fluctuations during periods of market uncertainty, their historical volatility of about 10.2 per cent is well below the equity market's 15.4 per cent, resulting in comparatively steadier performance," said Abhishek Banerjee, Investment manager on smallcase, and founder of LotusDew.
With a correlation of only 0.42 to equities, infrastructure platforms tend to behave similarly to utilities, producing consistent, inflation-linked income that is largely unaffected by economic swings, he added.
(With inputs from IANS)
