Unabated offloading of shares by foreign institutional investors (FII) coupled with heavy selling in the Adani group of stocks at the fag end of January kept the market sentiment cautious last month.
As a result, the benchmark BSE Sensex plunged 2.10 per cent in January and as much as 63 per cent of BSE stocks wiped off investors’ wealth during the same period. Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 28852 crore in January.
While sharing his view on the equity market, Ajit Mishra, VP-Technical Research, Religare Broking said, “We expect the negative tone to continue until the Nifty reclaims 18,000 decisively or forms a reversal pattern. Besides, volatility would continue to keep the traders on the edge citing upcoming events. In such a scenario, it is prudent to restrict positions and prefer a hedged approach.” The 50-share NSE Nifty index was at 17,662 on January 31.
Outperformers
Data available with Ace Equity showed that 20 BSE-listed little-known stocks more than doubled investors’ wealth in January. Shares of Mangalam Seeds climbed the most 196.80 per cent to Rs 267.40 on January 31, 2023 from Rs 90.10 on December 31, 2022.
It was followed by Lotus Chocolate Company (up 177.80 per cent), Integrated Technologies (up 176.10 per cent), JSL Industries (up 174.30 per cent), SVP Housing (up 172.40 per cent), Softrak Venture Investment (up 167.60 per cent), EFC (I) (up 164.40 per cent), Pulsar International (up 162.30 per cent), Jai Mata Glass (up 161.80 per cent) and Eyantra ventures (up 160.80 per cent).
Lotus Chocolate Company hogged the limelight in January after Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd’s subsidiary last month said that it has acquired a 51 per cent controlling stake in the company.
VCK Capital Market Services, Standard Capital Markets, K&R Rail Engineering, ETT, PNGS Gargi Fashion Jewellery, Classic Filaments, Advance Lifestyles, Asia Pack, Milestone Furniture and IM+ Capitals also gained somewhere between 100 per cent and 160 per cent during the month.
Going ahead, domestic equity markets are likely to see some volatility on Budget Day on February 1. Siddhartha Khemka, Head-Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said, “Any constructive announcement by the government in the Union Budget can take the market higher. The focus would be largely growth-oriented with emphasis on the further development of infrastructure like roads, railways, water and metro cities. Further, a lot of emphasis would be laid on renewable energy in order to reduce the energy cost to GDP with more incentives being announced to push solar power, EV, public transport, etc. Thus, a lot of stock-specific action will be seen in these sectors.”
Laggards
With a fall of 52 per cent, penny stock Alstone Textiles (India) emerged as the top loser of January. Shares of the company tanked to Rs 1.29 from Rs 2.70 during the month. PC Jeweller, Ceenik Exports (India), Kiri Industries, Sarda Proteins, Suumaya Corporation, National General Industries, Adani Total Gas, Music Broadcast, Bhatia Communications & Retail (India) and Munoth Financial Services also dipped over 35 per cent last month.
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