Sensex to end higher for 10th straight CY; decade's biggest winners emerge

Year-ender 2025: The Sensex is set to close calendar year 2025 with gains of about 8.3 per cent, marking its 10th consecutive year of positive returns – a rare streak that underlines the structural resilience of Indian equities even amid global volatility. 

 

The benchmark has climbed from around 78,139 at the end of 2024 to 84,647 by December 30, 2025, extending a decade-long rally that has taken the index from the 26,600 zone in 2016 to near the 85,000 mark, data compiled by Business Standard showed.

 

Over the last ten calendar years (2016-2025), the Sensex has delivered annual returns consistently, albeit uneven. The strongest year of the decade was 2017, when the index surged 27.9 per cent, driven by a synchronised global recovery, robust domestic flows, and optimism around structural reforms.

 

 

Other remarkable years included 2021, when the Sensex jumped 22 per cent, and 2023, which saw an 18.7 per cent rise, reflecting post-pandemic earnings recovery and strong liquidity support.

 

At the other end, 2016 was the weakest year for Sensex, with gains limited to 1.9 per cent, as global uncertainties, including prolonged global equity sell-offs tied to China’s slowdown and the Brexit shock, combined with domestic disruptions such as the surprise November demonetisation announcement that triggered cash shortages and investor sell-offs.

 

According to Ravi Singh, chief research officer at Mastertrust, the 10-year winning streak reflects “rare consistency in Indian equities,” driven more by steady earnings growth than speculative excesses. He noted that banks and financials led wealth creation as asset quality improved and credit growth remained strong, while IT and consumer stocks benefited from global demand and rising domestic incomes. Crucially, strong domestic inflows through SIPs, insurance and pension funds helped the market remain resilient despite global volatility and periodic foreign investor selling.

 

Stocks that defined the decade

 

A look at Sensex constituent-wise performance between end-2016 and end-2025 shows that wealth creation over the past decade has been highly concentrated, with a handful of stocks delivering outsized returns far ahead of the broader index.

 

Tata Steel emerges as the top performer among long-standing Sensex constituents, with the stock rising over 500 per cent between end-2016 and end-2025. The metal major considerably outpaced the benchmark over the decade, making it one of the biggest contributors to long-term index wealth creation.

 

Bharti Airtel also features prominently among the decade’s biggest winners, posting gains of over 450 per cent during the 2016-2025 period. The stock’s performance places it well ahead of the Sensex’s cumulative rise over the same timeframe.

 

Among auto names, Mahindra & Mahindra delivered strong decade-long returns, with the stock gaining more than 350 per cent between end-2016 and end-2025, making it one of the best-performing large-cap auto stocks in the index over the period.

 

Financials accounted for a major share of long-term wealth creation. ICICI Bank posted gains of over 300 per cent across the decade, reflecting a sharp re-rating from stressed-asset levels in the middle of the last decade to improved profitability and balance-sheet strength in recent years. State Bank of India also delivered robust returns of around 250 per cent over the same period, outperforming the broader index.

 

Larsen & Toubro, the index heavyweight from the capital goods and infrastructure space, recorded gains of over 200 per cent between end-2016 and end-2025, underlining steady compounding rather than sharp cyclical spikes.

 

Contrastingly, traditional compounders such as HDFC Bank and Maruti Suzuki delivered lower but steady double-digit annualised returns, translating into around 150-180 per cent gains over the decade, broadly in line with the Sensex’s long-term trajectory.

 

Impact of index reconstitution

 

It is important to note that not all current Sensex constituents were part of the index for the entire decade. Stocks such as InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) were added to the Sensex much later, and therefore their strong gains reflect performance from the date of inclusion rather than a full 10-year period. 

 

Similarly, Trent Ltd and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) were added to the Sensex in 2025, replacing Nestlé India and IndusInd Bank, and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles was removed in late 2025 to make way for InterGlobe Aviation.

 

That said, the decade-long data shows that while the Sensex delivered 10 consecutive years of gains, actual wealth creation was driven by a narrow set of outperformers, with metals, select financials, autos and infrastructure stocks dominating the list of top gainers.