Two months of lockdown: Sensex gains 15%, 45 BSE500 stocks rally over 50%

Among largecaps (BSE Sensex), M&M, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto gained 32-58 percent, whereas only four stocks were in the red.

The nationwide lockdown has completed two months, but gradually there has been easing in lockdown measures in green and orange zones with strict guidelines, including compulsory wearing of a face mask.

On the contrary, the new infections have been consistently rising as India reported more than 1.3 lakh confirmed infected cases with more than 3,800 deaths.

This remains a risk for the market and as a result, the upside for benchmark indices remain capped. Nifty50 has been moving in a wide range of 1,000 points after showing strong recovery from March-lows, and failed to surpass 10,000-mark yet, while the BSE Sensex has been ranging in 3,000 points.

The BSE Sensex gained 20 percent from March lows, and rallied 15 percent during the lockdown period so far. BSE Midcap index rose 14 percent and Smallcap surged 18.5 percent. Majority of sectoral indices gained in double digits but Bankex rose just 1.4 percent and realty index fell 3 percent.

Talking about stock-specific action, 65 percent of all BSE stocks traded in the green. Meanwhile, 80 percent of scrips in the BSE 500 index traded higher. Of which 300 stocks witnessed double-digit gains.

The list includes Jubilant Life, Glenmark Pharma, Infibeam Avenues, Alembic Pharma, HEG, Cipla, ICICI Securities, Graphite India, Parag Milk Foods, RCF, Vodafone Idea, ITI, Syngene International, M&M, Muthoot Finance and Rail Vikas Nigam.

Amongst them, top 2 stocks - Aurobindo Pharma and Hathway Cable were multibaggers with gain of more than 100 percent in lockdown period.

In the above list, pharma stocks hogged the limelight as count is more from this sector than others due to increase focus on the sector worldwide amid COVID-19 crisis.

On the contrary, stocks which are still in red are from sectors which have been badly affected by lockdown. Banking & financials also included in the list due to fear of rising NPA pressure post COVID.

Chalet Hotels, PVR, Aditya Birla Fashion, Lemon Tree Hotels, Bank Of Baroda, RBL Bank, Shoppers Stop, Future Retail, Oberoi Realty,

Punjab National Bank, Shriram City Union Finance, DCB Bank, DB Corp, AU Small Finance Bank, Repco Home Finance, Brigade Enterprises, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services etc lost 20-50 percent.

Among largecaps (BSE Sensex), M&M, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto gained 32-58 percent, whereas only four stocks were in the red which are Bajaj Finance (down 24 percent), SBI (down 18 percent), HUL (down 2 percent) and ICICI Bank (down 2 percent).

Overall the market is expected to be rangebound going ahead unless and until the vaccine gets found, while even though there could be easing in lockdown measures going ahead, the economic recovery could take more time as capacity is unlikely to be fully used for coming months, experts feel.

Experts further feel that the fiscal measures announced so far are on the supply side and nothing major has been done so far to revive demand, which was one of reasons for rangebound trade.

"The relief package announced by the government failed to impress the market as majority of it was for liquidity and not a stimulus, market would prefer stimulus based measures with a focus on the most affected sectors," Sumit Bilgaiyan, Founder of Equity99 told Moneycontrol.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in the near term, the market would focus on the global cues and the quarterly results. "Investors will closely monitor the development of coronavirus cases and vaccines, US-China relationship, crude oil prices movements and economic policies."

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