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Navneet Kumar

Navneet Kumar

Vice President, MSCI Research

Navneet Kumar serves on MSCI’s Core Equity Research team, which conducts proprietary research and strategic product development to address clients’ investment problems. Previously, he worked as a quantitative analyst at HSBC and ARP Research. Navneet is a CFA® charterholder and holds a master’s degree in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

Research and Insights

Articles by Navneet Kumar

    Not All Listed Stocks Are Investable: The Concept of Free-Float Market Capitalization

    3 mins read Quick Take | Mar 24, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    When assessing a potential investment within a given market, investors may want to consider the difference between total and free-float market capitalization. 

    Does positive GDP growth lead to strong stock returns?

    2 mins read Quick Take | Mar 10, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    Traditionally, GDP growth has been thought of as a leading indicator for domestic stock-market performance. 

    Where Next in Terms of Global Growth?

    2 mins read Quick Take | Mar 3, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    While most countries’ real GDP growth was buffeted in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, the emerging market & developing economies were less affected (-3.3%) than advanced ones (-5.8%). 

    The Drivers of ESG Returns

    Research Report | Feb 26, 2021 | Navneet Kumar, Zoltán Nagy, Guido Giese, Roman Kouzmenko

    As the COVID-19 crisis affected financial markets, all standard MSCI ACWI ESG equity indexes outperformed their market-capitalization benchmarks. Where has this outperformance come from? Have inflows into ESG investments driven up equity valuations, possibly creating a price bubble?

    Concentration Through a Country Lens: Impact on Regional Diversification

    3 mins read Quick Take | Feb 24, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    Just as country indexes can become concentrated in a handful of stocks, the same can happen with regions. 

    Going Digital: Tech-Led Growth Has Affected Country Concentration

    2 mins read Quick Take | Feb 17, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    Digital technology in all its many forms is now an integral part of our lives. 

    Increased Stock Market Concentration: Risk or Opportunity?

    2 mins read Quick Take | Feb 10, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    With the stellar growth of a handful of large-cap companies, an index can become more concentrated, with more of the performance and risk driven by an increasingly smaller number of stocks. 

    Dispersion in Equity Markets

    2 mins read Quick Take | Feb 3, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    When stock returns are more spread out, that creates more opportunities for active managers.

    The Evolution of the Emerging Markets Universe

    2 mins read Quick Take | Jan 20, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    Global benchmarks have understated the economic importance of emerging markets (EM) at times. 

    Correlations Within and Across Global Markets

    2 mins read Quick Take | Jan 13, 2021 | Navneet Kumar

    MSCI Research looked at average pairwise correlation between countries’ USD returns within developed and emerging markets (EM) for the last 20 years.

    Is ESG Investing a Price Bubble? Probably Not.

    6 mins read Blog | Dec 9, 2020 | Guido Giese, Navneet Kumar, Zoltán Nagy

    Inflows into ESG funds have soared in recent years and months, in part motivated by outperformance since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. But have these inflows become a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating an ESG bubble?

    Five Lessons for Investors From the COVID-19 Crisis

    Research Report | May 19, 2020 | Dimitris Melas, Navneet Kumar, Zoltán Nagy, Roman Kouzmenko

    The coronavirus pandemic sparked a surge of volatility across global financial markets. What lessons could investors draw from the COVID-19 crisis? In this paper, we present and discuss empirical evidence supporting five key lessons for investors regarding global investing, managing factors, active management, indexed investing and ESG investing.

    How Hedge Funds Navigated the Start of COVID-19 Volatility

    Blog | May 8, 2020 | Donald Sze, Navneet Kumar

    How did hedge funds navigate the initial volatility amid COVID-19? Though holdings information is limited, and delayed, we gained insights into their reaction by examining the change in hedge-fund portfolios between the end of January and end of February.

    Integrating Factors in Market Indexes and Active Portfolios

    Research Report | Nov 8, 2018 | Dimitris Melas, Navneet Kumar, Zoltán Nagy, Peter Zangari

    Asset owners use indexes as policy benchmarks and reference portfolios in their asset allocation. Index investors track cap-weighted indexes that seek to capture the market return. 

    Anatomy of Hedge Fund Portfolios

    Research Report | Jul 16, 2018 | Navneet Kumar, George Bonne, Roman Kouzmenko

    Measuring hedge funds’ positioning and potential crowding around stocks is of interest to many investors, given these funds’ reputation for outperformance. We explore the performance of hedge fund positions using MSCI HedgePlatform, which has advantages over U.S. Form 13F filings, including monthly data points, improved timeliness and full visibility of short positions.