The Indian stock market performed well during the just closed fiscal year 2021-2022. The BSE benchmark index Sensex rose about 18 percent and closed the financial year at 58,569 points. The index also started the new fiscal year 2022-23 positively, rising 708.18 to close at 59,276.69 on Friday.
Of the 30 shares on the Sensex, all companies except HDFC, UltraTech Cement and Hindustan Unilever Ltd posted positive returns in 2021-22. Let’s take a look at the sector-specific movement in the last fiscal year:
Information Technology Stocks
The information technology sector performed well in 2021-2022, with returns of between 17 and 47 percent. Tech Mahindra achieved the highest return of about 47 percent between April 2021 and March 2022, followed by Infosys (nearly 37 percent) and Tata Consultancy Services and HCL (about 17 percent each).
Bank shares
The banking sector saw a mixed trend in returns. On the one hand, private lender ICICI Bank and the largest state-owned lender State Bank of India saw a jump of about 25.17 percent and 37.7 percent, respectively, while on the other hand, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank gave less than one percent return during the financial year. Axis Bank rose 9.5 percent in 2021-2022.
Automotive
Automaker stocks underperformed the benchmark, rising between 1 and 11 percent. Maruti Suzuki rose 11 percent between April 1 last year and March 31 this year, while Bajaj Auto and Mahindra and Mahindra rose just one percent and 2.87 percent.
Telecoms, Pharmaceuticals
In the telecom sector, Bharti Airtel is the only telecom service provider that belongs to the Sensex top-30. The company posted a good return of 45.94 percent in the 2021-2022 financial year. The stock currently stands at Rs 758.60 each. In the pharmaceutical sector, Sun Pharma performed very well, achieving a 51 percent in the just closed fiscal year 2020-21.
others
During fiscal year 2021-2022, heavyweight Reliance Industries saw a 31.8 percent jump, tech giant Larsen and Toubro nearly 25 percent, and the price of diversified conglomerate ITC rose 15.9 percent.
State-owned ONGC saw an excellent return of 63.06 percent, Tata Steel rose 60 percent, NTPC saw a 32 percent increase and PowerGrid rose 39 percent during the fiscal year.
Asian Paints was up 22 percent, Titan Company was up about 61 percent, Nestle was up 2.26 percent and Bajaj Finserv saw a 76 percent jump in 2021-22.
the stragglers
Among those left behind were HDFC, UltraTech Cement and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Major home finance HDFC fell 2.55 percent in the year, UltraTech Cement fell 1.63 percent and HUL saw a negative return of 14.91 percent.
Moving forward
Kotak Securities Head of Equity Research (Retail) Shrikant Chouhan said: “Commodity price movements, inflation figures and central bank policy decisions are some key factors likely to weigh on domestic and global markets.”
Geojit Financial Services Head (Research) Vinod Nair said: “The Russia-Ukraine war, the crude oil movement and the RBI’s monetary policy meetings would be the main factors that will dictate the near trend.”
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