NIFTY Touches New High

If we consider the 50 companies under Nifty Fifty, only 19 companies have witnessed their stock prices trading above from December 9, 2014. The rest of the stocks in the list showed a downfall in their prices. During the three-month period, no new trend has emerged in the market, with IT sector as usual leading the pack. Out of the top five gainer companies during the period, three are big Indian IT players - HCL Technologies, Wipro and Infosys (showed more than 15% price appreciation), while the rest two are pharmaceutical companies - Dr. Reddy's Laboratory and Lupin (both 15% return). The other gainers in the list are TCS, BPCL, HDFC and Axis Bank among others. 

Axis bank, among all the other banks, is the only one which showed 4% growth in the said period. Further, if we look at the downside of the 50 companies under Nifty Fifty, the major losers are the banking companies (SBI, BOB, Kotak Mahindra etc). 

On sectoral front, it was again the IT sector which performed the best since December 9, 2013, registering a growth of 15.5%. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical sector stood at second position in terms of sectoral gainer. The other three sectors that showed a positive growth in the top five lists are FMCG, Auto and Services sector. However, Hindustan Unilever under-performed the entire FMCG industry and its stock price dropped by 2% in the same period. Also, there are exceptions in the pharmaceutical sector like Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories whose prices dropped in the same period. In terms of laggard, it was the energy, metal, infrastructure and realty sectors which remained under pressure. These sectors are under performing due to the sluggish demand and slower economic growth in India.

So, going ahead, we can expect a lot of volatility in the Indian market. However, sectors like IT, FMCG and Pharma are expected to continue the growth trend backed by an improvement in demand and customer sentiment in these sectors. Nonetheless, cyclical like auto, banking and infra will also make a comeback if the rally continues.