Indian market capitalisation tops USD 2.7 trillion for first time ever

Sensex touched the 50,000 mark for the first time ever on January 21, 2021. It is a special moment for Indian equity investors. A brilliant rally that saw Sensex gain 5,000 points in just 35 sessions has caught global investors’ attention.   

While Sensex at 50,000 is a great and easily recognisable landmark, another important landmark has been achieved by the Indian equity markets. The unique achievement by the Indian markets has been noticed and applauded by none other than Ashish Chauhan, MD & CEO of BSE. In his tweet on January 20, 2021, he highlighted, "January 20, 2021 closing market capitalisation of all BSE listed equities is Rs 1,97,70,572 crore. At Rs 73.03 per USD, India market capitalisation topped USD 2.7 trillion first time ever.”   

It is no mean achievement, and no one knows it better than Ashish Chauhan, who is heading one of the biggest and truly, the fastest stocks exchange in the world. The all-time high market cap of the Indian markets in terms of USD suggests the broader nature of the current market rally.   

The rally has been an outstanding one with Sensex adding nearly 25,000 points in just 208 days. The 52-week low for Sensex was made on March 24, 2020, when Sensex touched 25,639 levels.   

This fastest-ever Sensex has added 10,000 points to its tally. The 10,000 points were added in not more than 415 trading days. It took Sensex decades to add the first 10,000 points while it took a mere 22 months for it to gain from 10,000 levels to 20,000 levels. Having said, to achieve 40,000 levels from 30,000 levels, Sensex took a good four years' time period. 

Thus, the current market rally has a special significance to the investors, given the pandemic background and dire economic situation that the country recently went through.   

With Sensex at 50,000, the annualised CAGR returns for Sensex now stand at 15.4 per cent if we consider the data from 1949. These high annualised returns far outweigh the performance of the globally recognised indices (S&P 500, DJIA) from US markets and even Nikkei & Hang Seng.