The markets have had a great year in 2014 and the benchmark indices saw the BSESENSEX record gains of 29.89% while NIFTY rose by 31.39%. After having a slow start and lagging the benchmark indices, the MIDCAP and Smallcap indices had a stellar performance and rose double that of the SENSEX and NIFTY. BSESMALLCAP rose 69.24% and was the best performing index on the BSE. BSEMIDCAP rose 54.69%. The top sectoral gainer was BSECONDURABLE up 66.18%. There were no losers in the indices whatsoever and the least performer was BSEMETAL which rose a mere 7.91%.
The underperformers in relation to the SENSEX were 7 sectoral indices while six fared better than the benchmark indices. All the broader indices like the BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 and the MIDCAP and SMALLCAP were outperformers compared to the SENSEX and NIFTY.

Coming to the SENSEX constituents, of the 30 stocks 26 gained while 4 were negative for the tear. Of the 26 gainers 16 stocks performed better than the benchmark while 10 were underperformers. The top gainer was Axis bank which rose a staggering 93.10% followed by Maruti up 88.79%. On the losing side the worst performer was Tata Power down 10.07% followed by Tata Steel, Wipro and Reliance industries.
The banking sector was a great performer with three of the top five stocks being banks namely Axis, SBI and ICICI Banks. One wonders what realty is, the poor quality of assets that banks have and their mounting bad loans or the stock performance.

One thing is for sure that the performance in 2014 was driven on expectations of a stable government, turnaround in economy, inflation peeking out while 2015 will be all about government’s performance, handling of the fiscal deficit, introduction of reforms and taking the country forward. Making money will be tougher in 2015 than what it was in 2014.
Invest wisely because the good times are going to be here for quite some time.