The Hindu Business Line : Not a bad scorecard for Sensex stocks

Chennai, March 17 Notwithstanding current turbulence in the stock markets, as many as 16 stocks have actually recorded handsome gains during the period Sensex moved from 15,000 in August 2007 to a high of 21,206 in January 2008, before sliding back to 15,000 now.

Stocks such as Tata Power and Reliance Energy have gained 63 per cent and 56 per cent respectively since August 2007.

The strong crude prices seem to have helped ONGC and Reliance Industries too to gain 20 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in this period.

Those betting on defensive sectors aided pharma compny stocks such as Ranbaxy and CIpla record a positive return in the last six months.

On the other hand, IT counters such as Infosys Technology, Wipro, TCS and Satyam Computer have declined in the region of 25-15 per cent following a strengthening of the rupee and adverse economic conditions at the US.

Apart from IT counters, cement makers – ACC, Ambuja Cements and Grasim Industries, also declined since August 27.

Mr Dinesh Thakkar, Chairman and Managing Director, Angel Broking, said: “Global sentiments have been at the lowest levels in a long time and this is being reflected in the acute risk averseness of investors, who seem to have shunned equities for the time being.

While it would be difficult to time the bottom of the markets, considering that it is currently being driven more by sentiments than fundamentals, we would like to re-iterate that investors should continue investing into equities in a systematic manner, as we remain confident that equities would retain the honour of the best performing asset class over the long-term.”

However, according to analysts, if anyone bought these shares post January 8, 2008, the loss could be more than 30 per cent for most of the index heavyweights, as the selling pressure has been severe since the beginning of this year.

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