Samvat to Samvat: Nifty ends lower, while pharma and metals shine

Detailed summary

A challenging Samvat for Indian equities still offered pockets of strong gains, with pharma and metal stocks leading the way while several heavyweight stocks faced sharp declines.

The Indian stock market ended the Samvat on a weak note, but a strong rally in the final seven days helped reduce what could have been a much steeper decline. The Nifty closed the Samvat about 4% lower, while the Sensex fell around 5%.

Without the sharp recovery in the last week, the picture would have been far worse for investors. The rally provided some relief after a difficult year for the broader market.

However, not all parts of the market performed poorly. Midcap and smallcap indices managed to deliver positive returns for the Samvat. The Nifty Bank also turned positive, helped by the strong gains in the final few days.

Among sectors, pharma was the clear winner, with the Nifty Pharma index rising 24% during the Samvat. Metal stocks also had a strong year, with the sector gaining 23%. PSU banks and media were among the other better-performing sectors.

Opening of the article, excerpted from CNBC-TV18. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.