The bellwether Sensex may be far away from its lifetime closing high of 21,005, which it hit on November 5, 2010, but some of its constituents have been star performers. Indeed a look at the data for the last six years shows that on average five companies in the Sensex hit intra-day lifetime highs.
For the broader 50-stock Nifty, the number is eight companies. In this year so far, the Sensex has gained nearly 14% and already five Sensex stocks, including Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, TCS and Tata Motors have hit intra-day lifetime highs.
Among the stocks in the Nifty that have touched intra-day lifetime highs are ACC and Ambuja Cements.
Interestingly, although 2011 was not a good year for Indian equities with foreign institutional investors (FII) staying away, as many as nine Sensex stocks hit their intra-day lifetime highs, including FMCG majors Hindustan Unilever and ITC considered to be among defensives.
In the early part of 2011, tech major Infosys had hit a lifetime high of R3,494 but subsequently the stock lost some of its sheen as the performance was disappointing and is currently priced at around R2,860.
On the last day of the year, the market capitalisation of TCS was higher than that of Reliance Industries.
During the yea, a couple of stocks such as Reliance Communications hit an intra-day lifetime low.
In 2010 home loan major HDFC saw an intra-day lifetime high while in November that year State Bank of India, too, recorded an intra-day lifetime high.
Subsequently, the SBI stock has been under pressure given the disappointing numbers and is currently traded at R2,222 levels.