Financial sector's weight in Nifty back to pre-note ban levels

The Bank Nifty index has gained 13.4% this year against a 9.3% gain in the Nifty 50

Banking and financial stocks are back in the reckoning with the weight of these stocks seeing a surge in the Nifty 50 index in the past two months.

Demonetisation had taken the zing out of India’s banks and financial services sector, with a 50-basis point (bp) quarterly decline in the sector weight in the benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index at the end of December due to investors’ concerns about the adverse impact of demonetisation on the financial sector’s earnings.

However, with the resurgence of banking stocks in the past two months, the sector’s weight has inched up 100 bps to