Taking stock: Equity investors' wealth surged Rs 27.4 lakh cr in 2014-15; Axis Bank up 93%

The Sensex and Nifty surged 24.9 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively, in 2014-15, recording their best annual returns in the past five years. However, it is nowhere near the 80.5 percent and 73.8 percent gains they had registered in 2010. In 2013-14, both the indices had logged 18.8 percent and 18 percent returns. The benchmark Sensex closed today - the last trading day of the fiscal year - at 27,957.49, down 18.37 points or 0.07 percent from yesterday, while the Nifty closed at 8,491, down 1.30 points or 0.02 percent. [caption id=“attachment_2123873” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] In absolute terms, the Sensex gained of 5,571 points during the fiscal and the Nifty 1,787 points. The gains could have been even higher had the Sensex not shed over 2,000 points from its record high of 30,024.74 hit on March 4 and the Nifty nearly 630 points from its all-time high of 9,119.20. Disappointment with the Union Budget, worries of a interest rate hike in the US and Yemen crisis are the reasons for the recent fall in the stock markets. Stock market investors were richer by a whopping Rs 27.37 lakh crore this fiscal as total market capitalisation on the BSE stands at Rs 101.53 lakh crore today, as against Rs 74.15 lakh crore as on 31 March 2014. Among sectorals, barring metal and oil & gas all indices have posted positive returns in the fiscal 2015. With 70 percent gain, the healthcare sector tops the list followed by consumer durables (up 59 percent), capital goods, banks and automobile (up 45 percent each), and information and technology (up 30 percent). While metal recorded a decline of 5.8 percent and oil & gas 3.0 percent, respectively, FMCG and realty logged lower returns of 11.7 percent and 13.5 percent respectively. Among Sensex stocks, Axis Bank emerged as the major winner with 93 percent jump in its share price in fiscal 2015, followed by Maruti Suzuki (86 percent return), Cipla (83 percent), Sun Pharmacuticals (76 percent) and HDFC (48 percent). The losers include Tata Steel (down 18.1 percent), Reliance Industries (12.8 percent), Tata Power (12.1 percent), Hindalco Industries (7.3 percent) and ITC (7.1 percent). Overall, 1,788 stocks turned gainers and 661 losers during the fiscal. As many as five remained unchanged. Of the 1788 gainers, 653 stocks returned 101-2,938 percent to investors. Sun Pharmaceuticals was the largest gainer in absolute terms as its market capitalisation jumped by a whopping Rs 90,584 crore in fiscal 2015. It was followed by TCS with a gain of Rs 84,028 crore and HDFC Bank with Rs 80,158 crore. Foreign institutional/portfolio investors, the major drivers of the rally, pumped in $18.3 billion (Rs 1.11 lakh crore) in fiscal 2015 as against $13.4 billion (Rs 79,708 crore) in the previous fiscal. Mutual funds also turned net buyers in fiscal 2015 as they bought equities worth Rs 39,600 crore as against net selling of Rs 21,224 crore last financial year.