India most attractive markets ..

India is one of the most attractive markets in the world now because of its high domestic demand and economic growth, Merrill Lynch Chairman and CEO John A Thain said on Thursday.

"If you consider opportunity vis-a-vis risk, India is one of the most attractive markets in the world," Thain said in Mumbai.

Because of its high demand, growth in economy, strength of corporates to go global and huge spending on infrastructure, India would be less affected to the US slowdown, he said.

Thain, however, said that a combination of falling home prices, rising food and energy prices and higher unemployment would result in a pull back of the US economy in the next six to 12 months.

Stating that Merrill Lynch believed that "genuine opportunity would come from outside the US," Thain said he was bullish about China, Russia and Brazil as well.

"China is also a very attractive market for us. But, China is more coupled with the US and that will have much more impact on the Chinese economy," he said.

"The degree of impact (of US slowdown) is different from different countries," Thain added. Merrill Lynch, which recorded about four times top-line growth in India in the last two years and doubles its headcount in half the time, would continue to increase the number of employees in the country, Thain said.

Thain believed India would offer huge opportunity in the coming days for the company as on the wealth management side, Merrill Lynch anticipated huge opportunity emanating from the huge amount of wealth being created and on the investment banking side, India Inc is becoming more global with the outbound M&A activity on the rise.

Merrill Lynch, he said, has global footprint to provide advisory services to the aspiring Indian companies going for outbound merger and acquisitions. But on the wealth management side, the company would continue to target High Net-worth Individuals and not the masses.

"We are focused on HNIs. Our business is selected and not for masses. HNI is a rapidly increasing market in India, Brazil, China and Russia," he said.

Thain said Merrill Lynch, which raised $2.5 billion realty private equity funds for the Asia-pacific region in a week back, would also launch a mutual fund targeting at the sector.