Over 50% BSE-500 stocks trading below Nov 2010 levels

Among the Sensex pack - SBI, BHEL, JSPL, Tata Steel and Hindalco are trading over 45% below their November 10, 2010 levels on BSE.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share Sensex closed nearly three-year high today, but surprisingly more than 50% of the stocks from the BSE-500 index are trading below their November 2010 levels. This shows that the bullish trend is not broad based but skewed towards few stocks and sectors. The BSE-500 index represents nearly 95% of the total market capitalization on BSE.

The BSE benchmark index today soared over 467 points, or 2.3%, to 20,883, its highest level since November 10, 2010, after US lawmakers reached a deal to end the shutdown and temporarily avoided a debt default coupled with better-than-expected second quarter earnings from major corporates so far. The National Stock Exchange CNX Nifty ended up 144 points or 2.4% at 6,189, also closing near its three-year high.

The ending of the US government shutdown, with the US government deciding to raise the debt ceiling, sends a message to the markets that any sort of tapering down of the US quantitative easing program is unlikely any time in the near future, says Mr. Raghu Kumar, Cofounder of broking firm RKSV.

However, more than half or 322 stocks from the BSE-500 index are still trading below their price levels three years back.

Of these as many as 173 stocks are available at 50% lower than their prices on November 10, 2010. The list include Sintex Industries, DB Realty, Adani Enterprises, Canara Bank, Crompton Greaves, Bank of India, Reliance Capital and Escorts.

Among the Sensex pack - State Bank of India, BHEL, Jindal Steel and Power, Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries are trading over 45% below their November 10, 2010 levels, while NTPC, Tata Power and L&T are available at 25-45% discount.

ITC, Tata Consultancy Services, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Hindustan Unilever helped the Sensex to touch three-year high by appreciating more than 90%, while HDFC Bank
, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Tata Motors have gained between 40-55% during the period.

Stocks of five companies – ITC, TCS, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Sun Pharma have contributed 3,005 points for index gain, while L&T, Reliance Industries, SBI, ICICI Bank and BHEL accounted 2,340 points fall since November 2010, the Bloomberg data suggests.

Among the sectoral classification, realty, power, capital goods and metal index are quoting over 48% while oil and gas, consumer durable goods and Bankex indices are 17-21% below their November 2010 levels.

However, the BSE fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare, information technology (IT) and auto indices rallied between 15-86% during the period.