Monkey 1 beats brokers but Sensex, Nifty top gainers

It is a clear signal of victory. The Sensex and Nifty have managed to outperform the monkeys and brokers in the last 11 months and one week as the benchmark indices rose 6.3 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively.

However, monkey 1, consisting of 10 randomly picked stocks from the BSE 100 , did not do too bad as he managed to outperform the experts and his brother, Monkey 2, as the index gained 3.9 percent since inception. Specific stocks like Grasim (26.5 percent), Tata Global (35.5 percent) and Yes Bank (35 percent) are some of the top gainers helping the index rise ( see table ).

The experts portfolio, a collection of 10 stocks hand picked by 10 market whizkids , managed to come in at the second last position as it rose by 2.3 percent. MRF is the top performer here as the scrip has gained 61 percent since inception. ( see table )

The biggest loser continued to be the monkey-2, comprising 10 randomly selected stocks from the BSE 500, with a 9.5 percent fall in its value. Monkey-2 portfolio has been impacted by specific stocks such as VIP Inds (51.8 percent), Manappuram Finance (-37.8 percent) and KSK Energy Ventures (-39 percent). ( see table )

With another month to go for the end of this experiment, we can see that monkey-1 has done better than its rivals, the brokers. So is it luck or is it skill that is required to be successful in the stock markets? Well, for an answer watch this space in four weeks.