FY17 overview: Markets soar; Hindalco, IOC rule the roost

Here are the top FY17 gainers and losers

Bulls tightened their grip on Dalal Steet in FY17, a year that was marked by volatility from global and local events, with benchmark indices posting double digit returns. Nifty50 index reached its record high of 9,218 while Sensex rallied over 4,000 points this financial year.

 
The emphatic BJP victory in the state elections, strong economic data, stable quarterly earnings despite demonetisation led to the rally. The gains were also backed by good FII inflows while domestic institutional investors also supported the sentiment. Global events like Brexit, Fed rate hike and Donald Trump winning the US Presidential elections also didn’t drag the markets enough to have an overall impact.
 
While the Sensex gained 17% in the financial year till date, Nifty registered a gain of 18% during the same period.
 
In FY17, the S&P BSE Sensex added 4279 points to end at 29,620.50 levels, while the Nifty50 added 1,435 points to 9,173.96 compared to their respective closing figures on March 31, 2016.
 
Among 50 stocks in the Nifty50 index, 38 stocks gained with over 15 stocks rallying over 30% in FY17 while the rest of the stocks gave negative return to investors.
 
“Pickup in the FII inflows, BJP winning UP elections and global markets recovery contributed to market’s stellar performance in FY17. But the index seems misleading as Sensex has still not reached its record high but is at Rs 121 lakh crore, which is a record high market cap for India. It was characterised by the bubble or solid boom in the midcap and smallcap stocks. The rally was also contributed by the bold decisions made by the government - GST, FDI, demonetisation,” says G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director of Equinomics Research & Advisory.
 
Talking about the outlook for FY18 he added that, “It will be difficult to sustain the rally unless there is a pick up in the industrial economy and corporate earnings. Long term bullishness remains but concerns regarding valuations remain in the short-term. Don’t see markets continuing the rally in the first half of FY18.”
 
AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital also shared similar view that H1FY18 might not see much of a rally. He added that, “Earnings momentum will start to pickup in the second half of the year. We expect a growth of 15-18% in the Nifty basket companies in FY18.”
 
However, the spotlight for the financial year was stolen by the midcap and smallcap segment, which gave a stellar performance. The NSE’s Midcap Index gained a significant 34%, while the Smallcap Index surged 43%. While BSE Midcap and small cap index also rallied over 30% in the year. They also hit their all time highs during this period.  
 
SECTORS
 
The Nifty IT index fell nearly 6% in FY17 on Brexit, Donald Trump win and strong rupee, while Nifty PSU Banks gained over 43% despite the sudden demonetisation move put pressure on the index in the latter half of the year.
 
NSE Metal index was the biggest sectoral gainer in the year, up over 66%, followed by energy, realty and banks while pharma and IT sectors were the only two laggards in the index., both down a little over 5% for the year.
 
Among individual stocks, here is a list of top gainers and losers of FY17:

TOP 10 GAINERS OF FY17

TOP 10 LOSERS OF FY17

Top 10 losers of FY17