Investors' wealth surges over Rs 59.75 lakh cr in FY22

Investors' wealth jumped over Rs 59.75 lakh crore in the 2021-22 fiscal, helped by a largely buoyant trend in domestic stocks with benchmark index Sensex surging over 18 per cent during the period.

Braving many headwinds in the latter part of the current fiscal, Sensex closed the 2021-22 financial year with a gain of 9,059.36 points or 18.29 per cent.

Mirroring optimism in equities despite worries related to geopolitical tension, inflation concerns, FII selling, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms rallied by Rs 59,75,686.84 crore to Rs 2,64,06,501.38 crore in the entire 2021-22 fiscal.

"The positive sentiment continued for most of the year led by strong economic and earnings recovery on the back of easing COVID waves.

"However, equity markets lost their sheen in the last quarter, owing to geopolitical tensions and inflation concerns, especially in developed economies.

"Nonetheless, it has been a good year for the markets and managed to end with healthy gains in FY22," Ajit Mishra, VP-Research, Religare Broking, said.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies had jumped to an all-time high of over Rs 280 lakh crore on January 17 this year.

Analysts said that easing of restrictions, strong vaccination drives and less severe COVID waves abated concerns regarding the pandemic.

"Moreover, strong support from the government and central bank (keeping interest rates low & adequate liquidity) to revive the economic growth helped markets inch higher," Mishra added.

The BSE Sensex reached its all-time high of 62,245.43 on October 19 last year.

Sunil Nyati, managing director of Swastika Investmart Ltd, said. "FY22 remains good for the Indian equity market despite lots of headwinds.

"The first half was very good while the market entered into consolidation in the second half combined with high volatility.

"The beauty of the second half of FY22 is the strong resilience of domestic investors amid lots of global headwinds and large FIIs' selling."

Highlighting major factors driving the equity markets, Nyati said, "The first half was dominated by Covid 3rd wave, unlocking, strong earnings recovery, however in the second half, the market had to deal with tight monetary policy, high inflation, geopolitical tension, and one of the highest-selling by the FIIs, but the market has shown strong resilience amid lots of worries."

The 30-share BSE barometer declined by 115.48 points or 0.20 per cent to settle at 58,568.51 in choppy trade on the last day of the 2021-22 fiscal on Thursday.

On the market outlook, Nyati said, "We managed to climb all the walls of worries and are ready to outperform in FY23, however high inflation, rising interest rates may cause near-term volatility. Apart from inflation, any surprise on the Covid front could be a major risk for the market, he added.

"Market sentiments saw improvement and one of the reasons can be large investor participation in the primary markets.

"The phenomenal move in the secondary market combined with the list of well-known companies going public boosted investors' confidence and attracted noticeable traction," Mishra added.

Reliance is the country's most valued firm with a market valuation of Rs 17,81,834.57 crore, followed by TCS (Rs 13,83,001.33 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 8,15,166.80 crore), Infosys (Rs 8,02,309.19 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 5,07,434.03 crore) in the top five order.

"Even as markets ended the last day of the financial year in a rather quiet mood, it has delivered a 19 per cent return this year on the Nifty.

"Such returns in a year when FPI's have pulled out big money highlights the confidence of the Indian Investor amidst a slew of headwinds," according to S Ranganathan, head of research at LKP Securities.

During the financial year 2020-21, the BSE benchmark had zoomed 68 per cent.