Indian stock markets in FY23 have seen events like aggressive monetary policy, crisis between the Russia and Ukraine, and last but not the least — the US and Europe banking crisis, leading to a bumpy ride for markets not just in India but across the globe. The Indian markets, however, still ended the financial year on a flat note as domestic investors continued to remain confident of the country’s growth story and remained invested over the last several months, even when Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded Indian shares.
“In FY23 we have seen events of decadal high inflation, aggressive monetary policy stance by global central banks w.r.t interest rate hikes, banking crisis in US and Europe, and continuing Russia-Ukraine war. Indian markets on the back of all the headwinds are expected to end the Financial year on a flat note,” said Srikanth Subramanian, CEO of Kotak Cherry.
The Sensex and Nifty ended FY23 with gains of almost a percent each, however, both indices underperformed their Asian peers during the year. Amid recessionary pressures, demand slowdown and the unexpected banking crisis, the Nifty IT index remained the top laggard in FY23, falling 21%, which is the biggest fall for the index since the financial crisis in FY09. In contrast, the public sector banks continued to move higher, evident in the 37% rise in the Nifty PSU Bank index in FY23, also a third consecutive year of gains.
Among stocks, ITC remained the most stable frontline stock in FY23, even when other stocks took hit amid several factors. M&M, Britannia, and NTPC were other top Nifty stocks that delivered positive returns during the year. On the flipside, Wipro, Divi’s Labs and Hindalco remained the top Nifty losers in FY23.
Catching eyes of all investors, stocks like RVNL (Rail Vikas Nigam Limited), Karur Vysya Bank, Finolex have gained between 100-300% in FY23 itself.
“With inflation slowing down over the last few months, it would be important to see how this pans out in the first half of FY24 along with the developing situation of banking sector in US and Europe. The regional banks specifically in the US are battling a crisis of confidence, and many customers are seen adopting ‘flight to safety’. We expect volatility still to persist as we head into FY 24,” said Subramanian.