The current calendar year has seen most sectors lose ground as a consistent fall in the rupee, along with liquidity tightening measures by the Reserve Bank of India, have made investors jittery about investing in stocks.

In CY13, while the benchmark Sensex has lost more than 4%, only three sectors ? IT, FMCG and pharmaceuticals ? have managed to buck the trend and register some gains.

The BSE IT index has been the best performer of the year with gains of nearly 31%, largely aided by the falling rupee as a large portion of the income for these companies is in dollars. Incidentally, TCS ? the largest IT company by market capitalisation ? reported 15.5% y-o-y rise in its net profit for the period ended June.

Among the technology pack, HCL Tech (48.53%), Mindtree (45.55%), TCS (41.45%), Infosys (28.30%) and Wipro (29.72%) are the major gainers in the current calendar year. Credit Suisse, in a recent note, stated that, ?while the IT services stocks have done quite well in the past few months, consensus upgrades, the willingness of investors to pay a higher P/E multiple (given the pick-up and lack of choice in India) and continuing INR weakness can provide more legs to this rally. Concrete signs of a pick-up in discretionary spending can be the next trigger for upgrades and for stocks?.

Apart from technology, FMCG and pharma stocks have also clocked impressive gains in the current calendar year. While the BSE Healthcare index has gained 10.48% in CY13, BSE FMCG is up 9.4%. Interestingly, on Friday, when the benchmark Sensex fell 770 points or 3.97% ? the most in about two years ? the BSE Healthcare index (-1.44%) lost the least among all sectoral indices, followed by BSE IT (-2.26%).

According to market participants, these sectors are more likely to generate robust earnings for investors when compared to other sectors. ?The macro environment favours the (consumer) sector and could trigger earnings upgrades and, we believe, superior relative growth to the market,? stated a recent note by Morgan Stanley analysts Ridham Desai and Nillai Shah.

While major consumer goods players, ITC and Hindustan Unilever (HUL), reported a slowdown on a y-o-y basis in their topline growth at 10.3% and 7%, respectively, the foreign brokerage feels that ?as inflation slows, consumption demand volumes should rise and benefit the sector. Another piece of good news is the rains. The combination of lower crop inflation and higher output means real incomes are set to rise in the coming months ? good for consumption?.

The top-performing FMCG stocks in CY13 include Dabur India (32.08%), United Spirits (17.36%), Godrej Consumer Products (20.82%), HUL (14.07%) and ITC (11.59%).

Within the pharma sector, the top gainers include Sun Pharma (47.38%), Lupin (32.89%) and Dr Reddy?s Laboratories (18.50%). Mumbai-based Sun Pharma reported a healthy set of numbers for Q1 as net sales rose 31% y-o-y.

Market players say that pharma stocks are looked upon as safe bets, especially in times of high volatility. The first half of CY13 also saw Indian drugmakers receiving approval for over 200 abbreviated new drug application. Some of the pharma entities like Astrazeneca Pharma and Strides Acrolab also saw a sharp increase in foreign holding in the recent past.