'Rural resilience' helped speed Indian equity rebound despite a domestic economy 'on its knees'

India's equity market has returned to positive year-to-date returns this month after suffering one of the harshest March falls, with strong monsoons aiding the recovery of its agricultural economy despite "lukewarm" GDP figures, according to industry commentators.

In US dollar terms, the MSCI India index fell by 40.1% to 23 March, surpassing losses for the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which bottomed out at 31.8%. However, the recovery of the world's second-most...