One year returns analysis of Nifty & Nifty companies

Investors went through a roller coaster ride in the last one year. The stock markets, throughout the world, saw a sharp fall and even bounced back in this period, predominantly due to the pandemic. Few other major world events also increased the market volatility at times but none was as significant as the COVID-19 effect.

We analysed the last one year's returns of Nifty as an index and its constituents too in the last one year, starting from August 27, 2019, till August 27, 2020. Over this period, Nifty gave an absolute return of a mere 4.09 per cent. Surprisingly, there was enough disparity in Nifty constituents with regard to the returns they gave individually.

The highest absolute returns were given by stocks like Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (74.68 per cent), Reliance Industries Ltd (67.19 per cent) and Cipla Ltd (62.52 per cent). Overall, 28 companies gave positive absolute returns in this period. The worst absolute returns in this period were given by IndusInd Bank Ltd (-56.29 per cent), Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (-42.40 per cent) and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (-36.20 per cent).

Certainly, there is a huge difference in the best and worst-performing companies due to their idiosyncratic factors. Meanwhile, with 28 companies giving positive returns and 22 giving negative returns, one cannot conclude that the market has gone clearly up or down as there are stocks on both sides.