Disaggregation of market performance throws up interesting details for 2017

The Nifty IT Index also returned 12 per cent in the last year, underperforming the broad market

A disaggregation of market performance, sector by sector, throws up some interesting details for 2017. First, the Nifty went up by 28 per cent from January to December 2017. Smaller stocks did better with the Nifty Midcaps 100 free-float up by 46 per cent and Nifty Smallcaps 250 up by 55 per cent. (All percentages are rounded).

Practically every sector has gained. The one poor performance has come from the erstwhile darling, pharmaceuticals. The pharma index is negative at minus seven per cent for the year. Exports to the US have been under a cloud with "raids" by the FDA