As the financial year, 2018-19 (FY19) comes to an end, the Sensex and Nifty look set to close on a strong note despite witnessing various volatile phases during the period. While the Sensex has rallied 17 percent in FY19, the Nifty surged 14 percent during the same period. In FY18, the Sensex and Nifty advanced 10 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

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The strong fundamentals of the Indian economy, robust FII inflows, falling commodity, and crude prices insulated the Indian markets from the global stock market slowdown. That apart, an improvement in corporate earnings going ahead also boosted sentiment.

Among global peers, the Dow Jones index gained 8 percent in the last 1 year, whereas, Nasdaq and Dow Jones rose 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively, during the same period.

In Asia, Nikkei225 index was flat in FY19, while, Shanghai, Hang Seng, and Kospi fell 2 percent, 3 percent, and 12 percent, respectively. MSCI Emerging Markets Index also declined 10 percent in FY19.

Foreign brokerages such as HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Morgan Stanley have turned bullish on Indian markets. HSBC has raised its rating on India from ‘neutral’ to ‘overweight’ and remains bullish on financial, metal, and consumer discretionary sectors.

Hopes of current government returning to power has also boosted the market. On a year-to-date basis, both Nifty and Sensex has risen 7 percent.

However, liquidity distress triggered by the IL&FS default in September 2018 led to a decline in midcap and smallcap indices. They recorded their worst performance since FY12. The S&P BSE Midcap lost 4 percent, while the S&P BSE Smallcap has slipped 12 percent in FY19.

Among sectors, Nifty Bank was the best performing index on NSE, rising nearly 25 percent amid strong recover in the banking space and low-interest rates. Analysts still believe there is more room to grow in this sector.

Nifty Energy, Nifty IT, Nifty PSU Banks, and Nifty FMCG were other sectoral gainers in FY19, surging in the range of 16-25 percent.

Among losers, Nifty Media, Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal and Nifty Realty fell on the index.

TOP GAINERS OF FY19

Bajaj Finance is the top gainer on both Nifty and Sensex, rising 70 percent in FY19 on the back of sustainable growth. It has surged over 350 percent in the last 3 years.

Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and TCS were other top performers on Nifty50.

The stock of the Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate has gained 53 percent on Sensex in the last 1 year. It is ranked second in terms of market capitalisation on BSE with a value of Rs 8.6 lakh crore.

TOP LAGGARDS OF FY19

Among losers, Tata Motors was the worst performing stock, down over 45 percent on the back of plummeting sales of JLR, downgrade by credit rating agencies and poor earnings performance. The December quarter has been weak for the entire auto sector. Tata Motors in its Q3FY19 reported a consolidated quarterly loss of Rs 26,961 crore, the biggest ever in its history.

Vedanta Indiabulls Housing Finance, HeroMoto Corp, and Eicher Motors were the other laggards on Nifty50.

First Published:Mar 29, 2019 2:19 PM IST