MUMBAI: The year 2017 was a fantastic year for Dalal Street means for the Indian Stock Market, as BSE sensex posted a massive gain of 7,285 points, up by 30 per cent. The Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) too spurted by 2,305 points, up by 31 pc despite some of the disruptive moves include the rollout of the goods and services tax(GST) and the lingering impact of the Government decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes late last year.
The market was in endanger following a tension on military threats between the US and North Korea for sometime, but later it came out safely. The equity market kept its supremacy this year on the strength of reforms made by Modi Government such as GST, IBC and RERA. Strong liquidity, both from domestic as well as foreign investors, also supported the market through 2017.
Moreover, improvement in macro numbers post the stabilising of GST implementation and a good off take during the festive season helped boost growth for various sectors.
Seeing the journey of the Sensex during the year, as the month passed, the health of the sensex improved, as in first month of 2017, on January 12, it crossed 27K level. On February 2, it breached 28K level to 28,266. Very next month, on March 6 it crossed 29K level to 29,048. On April 26 it crossed 30 level to 30,133 and on May 29, it touched 31,109.28, on July 13, it touched 32 level to 32,037.38, on October 25, it reached 33,042,50 and on December 26, it touched 34K level to 34,010, a life time high.
It was clearly the year of Mid-and Small-caps, which outperformed their larger peers as money – both local and foreign – poured in BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices rallied 52 pc and 64 pc, respectively, during the same period.
The Government’s bold reform measures attracted strong liquidity from domestic investors- both retail and institutional, which provided support to the market even in the face of intermittent selling pressure from FIIs.
The sub-par performance of real estate and gold as investment options has also aided diversion of capital into equities.
Despite the sharp rally in CY17, most equity strategists are not calling it an end of the bull market yet. They forecast the benchmark Nifty to deliver returns of 10 pc-15 pc by December 2018 on supportive global economic growth, and gradual improvement in business sentiment.
The returns will mostly be in line with growth in corporate earnings in the CY18, the analyst opined. If we glance on sectoral indices, Realty and Consumer durable indices outperformed by rising over 90 per cent for the year while IT and pharma remained the biggest sectoral losers. In scrips, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries were sparked. While, Lupin, Dr Reddy’s and Tata Motors were the biggest losers, down between 17-42 per cent.
Investors will never forget the year 2017, as 153 initial public offers (IPO) hit the stock market this year, raising nearly 70,000 crore and the same trend will be continued in 2018.
The fourth quarter (October-December) of this year saw 22 IPO shitting the market, an increase of 47 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q- O-Q) in terms of number of deals.
Primary market growth and overall economic growth is set to make India a highly attractive emerging market for investments for the coming months. Three sectors were shined were technology, industrials andfinancials during the year 2017.
Sectors like jewellery retail, footwear, building materialrural recovery sectors like auto, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and vehicle financing will do well in 2018.
The buoyancy seen in the year going by is likely to continue in2018 as well, though returns may be less than 2017 as eight assembly elections, last full-fledged Union Budget ahead of general elections2019 and up-down in crude oil prices may cause volatility, experts opined.
The Indian benchmarks were also among the top five globally. TheISE National-100-Turkey was up by 45 pc and Hang Seng-Hong Kong up by 42 pc were the only global indices that outperformed the Indian markets.
Meanwhile, the Karachi stock exchange was the only global indexending the year in red, down by 17 pc.
(AGENCIES)
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