The year 2022 is almost coming to an end with just a few days left. It was full of uncertainties that were difficult to gauge in 2021. The Ukraine-Russia war was probably the most unexpected event of the year for the global markets which severely dented the global supply chains that were recovering from a hit taken during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The central banks’ across the globe changed their stance to aggressively increase interest rates as the world struggled to cope with soaring inflation which put pressure on the equity markets as debt instruments started to look more lucrative.
Despite being a turbulent year for the equities markets some stocks turned out to be good wealth creators, while others proved to be wealth destructors. Here’s a glimpse of the top 3 gainers and losers in the last one year from the small, mid and large cap space, as of 23 December 2022
Large Caps - Nifty 50 Index
From the prominent Nifty 50 index, the star performer was Adani Enterprises Ltd (NS:ADEL) which more than doubled over the last one year, delivering a dream return of 117.2%. This is not just the first year, that the stock has turned out to be a goldmine for investors as the last 5-year return is a mind-boggling 2,131.7%. As a matter of fact, the stock is also the most expensive one in the Nifty 50 list, with a P/E ratio of 567.91, compared to the Nifty 50 P/E ratio of 3.5.
Image Description: 1-year chart of Adani Enterprises (Blue), ITC (Purple) & Mahindra & Mahindra (Red)
Image Source: Investing.com
The runner-up is quite a surprise. It is the ‘meme stock’ ITC Ltd (NS:ITC), which generally gets trolled by market participants for not moving an inch. It is one of the most stable large caps out there and despite that, ITC made a splash this year, delivering a 1-year return of 50.35%.
The third spot was secured by an auto giant, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (NS:MAHM). Although the stock turned totally sideways in the last 5 months of the year, the rally in the first 7 helped it to cheer investors with a healthy return of 48.1%. It significantly outperformed the Nifty auto index, which is up 15.2% in the same period.
Coming to the duds, Wipro Ltd (NS:WIPR) remained the worst index performer which is not so surprising considering a tough time for IT stocks. The IT index itself fell 25.1% in the last one year, and Wipro underperformed with a 45.6% fall. The stock is still hovering near its 52-week low.
Image Description: 1-year chart of Wipro (Green), Tech Mahindra (Blue) & Divi’s Laboratories (Pink)
Image Source: Investing.com
The second biggest loser is also from the IT space, Tech Mahindra Ltd (NS:TEML). Investors were taken aback this year as the stock tanked 38.9% in a 1-year span, but on the positive side of it, the dividend yield of the stock shot up to 4%, which is not bad for a blue chip.
The thirst biggest large-cap loser was a pharmaceutical company, Divi's Laboratories Ltd. (NS:DIVI). From October last year, the stock had been falling consistently, making a lower low and lower high formation and ended up delivering a 1-year return of -21.8%, which is fairly better than the top two duds.
Mid Caps - Nifty Midcap 100 Index
The midcap space was action-packed this year. From the NIFTY Midcap 100 index, only one stock delivered a triple-digit return and that is Varun Beverages Ltd (NS:VARB) which is a bottler for PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) in India. The stock delivered a massive 1-year return of 127.3% and the last 5-year return is also eye-popping 647%. In fact, its market cap skyrocketed to INR 89,673 crores, which was less than half, a year ago, essentially turning it into a large-cap now.
The next-best midcap performer was Indian Bank (NS:INBA). The stock didn’t go anywhere for the first half of the year, but as a buying frenzy kicked in to lap up PSU banks in the second half, most of them surged to multi-year highs. Indian Bank secured the second spot in the Nifty Midcap 100 index with a 1-year rally of 91.9%.
Image Description: 1-year chart of Varun Beverages (Yellow), Indian Bank (Red) & Indian Hotels Company (Blue)
Image Source: Investing.com
Indian Hotels Co. Ltd (NS:IHTL) came in at the third spot, as its shares staged a consistent rally of 66.1% in the last one year. Although the company is reporting losses for the last two financial years, investors are still showing enormous confidence in the stock.
Now coming to wealth destructors from this index (ignoring IPOs that haven’t completed a year of listing), the top one is PB Fintech Ltd (NS:PBFI), more commonly known as Policy Bazar. Since listing, it had been a laggard and the stock tanked 55.1% in the last one year, that too after a decent recovery from the all-time low, marked last month.
Image Description: 1-year chart of Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (Pink), Indian Energy Exchange (Green) & PB Fintech (Blue)
Image Source: Investing.com
The next one is Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (NS:IIAN). The stock was luring everyone on the street last year with its one-way rally, but it topped out in October 2021, after which there was no upside momentum for investors to cheer. In the last one year, the share price of IEX took a hit of 49% and on Friday, the stock fell to a new 52-week low.
The third biggest wealth destroyer from the Nifty Midcap 100 index was Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (NS:TTML). Yes, a Tata Group company is making it to this list. While the stock was torpedoed severely from a 52-week high of INR 290.15, losing over 71% of its value, the last one-year return stood at -46.1%, making it a smallcap now, with a market capitalization of INR 17,066 crores.
Small Caps - Nifty Smallcap 100 Index
The first one from this list that turned on the party for the bulls is Bharat Dynamics Ltd (NS:BARA). Defense stocks remained in the flavour in 2023 as the government started to put more emphasis on the defense sector after the Ukraine-Russia war. The stock more than doubled in a 1-year span, delivering a mouth-watering return of 112.4%.
Image Description: 1-year chart of Bharat Dynamics (Sky Blue), Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp (Red) & Shree Renuka Sugars (Purple)
Image Source: Investing.com
To my surprise, a sugar stock secured the second spot here and that was Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd. (NS:SRES). The stock surged 76.8% in one year, however, returns just 3 days ago would have been over 100%, all thanks to the market mayhem this week.
Stocks from the chemical and fertilizers space were going up through the roof a few weeks back. The third best performer is from this space, Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp Ltd (NS:DPFE) which soared over 72.5% in one year. This week alone the stock cracked a whopping 22%, else the returns would have been noticeably better.
Now to the small caps that went through an unabated selling for 1 year. The worst performer (excluding IPOs with less than 1 year of listing) was Brightcom Group Ltd (NS:BRIH). It is quite a volatile stock that rallied from ~ INR 4 to INR 121 in the second half of 2021 and fell over 76% in the next one year, to INR 28.05.
Image Description: 1-year chart of Tanla Platforms (Black), Brightcom Group (Orange) & Metropolis Healthcare (Pink)
Image Source: Investing.com
The next small cap is from the IT space, Tanla Platforms Ltd (NS:TNSL). The stock witnessed a selling spree as it fell from highs of sub-2,000 levels in 2022 to the CMP of INR 656.45 and the last one-year performance of the stock jittered investors with a return of -65.4%.
The third stock from the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index that was under a firm bear grip this year was a diagnostics chain, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd (NS:METP). The stock which became a darling of investors during the Covid-19 pandemic, faced relentless liquidation this year, delivering a negative return of 59.2%.