Even as both Sensex and Nifty ended the Hindu calendar year Samvat 2075 with modest gains, gold and silver outperformed equities with returns of over 21 per cent each. Gold returned 21.9 per cent gains this year as against last year’s Diwali Similarly, silver delivered 16.6% return since last Diwali. While the Sensex jumped 4,066.15 points or 11.62 per cent, the Nifty surged 1,053.90 points or 10 per cent in Samvat 2075. The stock markets were generally a choppy ride during the given period on account of several domestic and global concerns. On Friday, the last trading day of Samvat 2075, the Sensex settled 37.67 points, or 0.10 per cent, higher at 39,058.06. The Nifty closed at 11,583.90, up by just 1.30 points or 0.01 per cent.
The mid and smallcap stocks that attract a major part of the investment from the retail investors are still down. While the BSE midcap index is down 2.6 per cent, smallcap dipped 8.8 per cent on the year. Asian Paints, Kotak Bank and Bharti Airtel were the top gainers since previous Diwali with gains of 45 per cent, 41 per cent and 34 per cent, each.
Meanwhile, the combined market capitalisation of seven of the 10 most valued Indian firms advanced by Rs 76,998.4 crore last week, with TCS leading the chart. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), HUL, HDFC, ITC, ICICI Bank and SBI were the other firms which witnessed a jump in their market valuation for the week ended Friday, while HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Infosys suffered losses. In the ranking of top-10 firms, RIL remained at the number one position, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, HDFC, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys and SBI.