Indian benchmark indices recorded their largest gains in more than a decade in April, helping Nifty 50 recoup losses driven by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The NSE Nifty 50 rose nearly 15 percent last month—the highest since May 2009—even as all businesses barring essential services remained shut following a national lockdown imposed to curb the novel coronavirus outbreak. While Nifty has still fallen more than 23 percent year-to-date, it’s better than a nearly 40 percent drop at the lowest point in March.
Broader indices such as the Nifty Smallcap 100 Index and Nifty Midcap 100 index gained between 13 percent and 15 percent, respectively in April, data from Bloomberg showed.
Key contributors to Nifty 50’s gain in April were Reliance Industries Ltd. and the HDFC twins—HDFC Bank Ltd. and HDFC Ltd.
Shares of Reliance Industries were buoyed by the company’s largest ever rights issue and foreign investments in its newly created susibdiary, Jio Platforms Ltd.
Pharma and metal stocks in the Nifty 50 like Cipla Ltd., Vedanta Ltd. and Hindalco Industries Ltd. gained more than 35 percent last month. Hero MotoCorp Ltd. rose by nearly 32 percent last month even as it didn’t record domestic sales.
Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Pharma recorded its best ever monthly gains followed by Nifty Auto Index and Nifty Metal Index.
Broader Markets
Construction companies like Sadbhav Engineering Ltd. and Ashoka Buildcon Ltd. were among the top gainers among stocks tracked by more than 10 analysts, while retail and multiplex stocks like Aditya Birla Fashion Ltd. and Inox Leisure Ltd. were among the laggards.
Foreign Investor Inflow
Foreign investors continued to pull out money for the second straight month both in equity and debt segments.
The combined outflow was nearly Rs 20,000 crore and has been around Rs 1.23 lakh crore so far this year, according to data from National Securities Depository Ltd.
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