Equities must remain in retirement portfolio despite market swings: Hsu

Mumbai: Equities will outperform cash over the long term and must remain an important part of retirement portfolios despite recurring market volatility, said Judy Hsu, CEO of wealth and retail banking, Standard Chartered.Her advice comes at a time when India’s headline equity indices have moved largely sideways over the past two years while investors piled into South Korean and Taiwanese stocks that benefited from increasing allocation to the AI universe. Yet, India continues to lead the world in aggregate growth – and additions to the list of dollar millionaires. Rising global bond yields have also dimmed the allure of emerging market assets at the expense of dollar-based instruments, pressuring the rupee and other growth assets of a nation that imports nearly four-fifth of its energy supplies. “Equities ultimately outperform cash over the cycle,” Hsu said in an interview. “If you have that investment timeframe and you are building your retirement portfolio, you cannot put it in cash. Cash will not outperform, even when interest rates rise, because of inflation.”

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As of September 25, the Nifty 50 had delivered a negative one-year total return of 6.10% while its three-year annualised return stood at 5.60%, according to data published by the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Foreign portfolio investors have withdrawn a total of ₹1.78 lakh crore from Indian equity and debt market so far in 2026, the second consecutive year of outlfows, after they withdrew ₹1.04 lakh crore in 2025.

Spreading the Risk

“Given the uncertainties in the market, it is important to build a resilient and diversified portfolio,” Hsu said. Private credit has emerged as one of the fastest-growing asset classes among high-net-worth clients, although its limited liquidity and longer lock-in periods make it unsuitable for some investors, she said. The bank is also seeing its strongest wealth-management client growth among entrepreneurs who are expanding or selling their businesses. “The biggest growth for us in wealth management is in the entrepreneur space,” Hsu said. “Entrepreneurs may be selling their business or growing their business.”

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In India, the bank serves a mix of professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners. Globally, entrepreneurs account for about 70% of Standard Chartered’s affluent clients and represent its fastest-growing client segment, Hsu said. Standard Chartered is the third-largest wealth manager in Asia and had more than $470 billion in affluent assets under management at the end of June, excluding its mass-market retail clients, she said.

Asia’s expanding middle class, rising entrepreneurial wealth and growing participation in financial markets are creating structural opportunities for wealth managers. The financialisation of household savings has accelerated since the pandemic, as digitisation has widened retail participation in equities and other financial products, Hsu said.Standard Chartered attracted $33 billion in net new money globally in the first half, up 18% from $28 billion a year earlier.