Indian stocks over the past two years have been more volatile than those in a number of global markets and valuations on domestic bourses are the highest among select emerging economies, the government said on Thursday. “In the period January 2006 to December 2007, the volatility of weekly returns of Indian (stock) indices was higher as compared to indices outside India such as S&P 500 of US and Kospi of South Korea,” according to the Economic Survey 2007-08 report.

In terms of price-to-earnings ratio, India was the most expensive among select emerging markets, the survey added. “The valuation of Indian stocks as reflected in P/E multiples of around 27 times at end-December 2007 was the highest amongst the select emerging marketS such as South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan,” the Survey said. “While the BSE Sensex rose by 47.1 per cent during 2007, SSE Composite Index of China rose by 96.7 per cent and the Jakarta Composite Index of Indonesia increased by around 52 per cent,” the report added.