Year Ender 2021: One in five BSE 500 stocks destroyed wealth

As many as 100 stocks in the BSE 500 index wiped out investors' wealth in 2021, when the benchmark BSE Sensex is set to settle the year with over 20 per cent gain. In general, buying by the institutional investors, robust liquidity and improving macros supported sentiment during the year. However, the identification of Omicron kept the market jittery in the last quarter of the calendar.
 
Among the not-so-happy stocks on Dalal Street, shares of Ujjivan Small Finance declined the most 53 per cent to Rs 18.55 on December 28 against Rs 39.30 on December 31 last year.
 
Worsening bottom-line figures, increasing non-performing assets and high-level resignations put some pressure on Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. For the half-year ended September 30, the lender posted a loss of Rs 507.27 crore against a profit of Rs 150.65 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Percentage of gross NPA to gross advanced jumped to 11.80 per cent in Q2FY22 over 0.98 per cent in Q2FY21.
 
Strides Pharma Science (down 49 per cent), Spandana Sphoorty Financial (down 42 per cent), Gulf Oil Lubricants India (down 39 per cent), IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (down 38 per cent), Bandhan Bank (down 38 per cent) and RBL Bank (down 38 per cent) stood among other major losers in the index.
 
Of late, shares of RBL Bank took a hit after a surprise move by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to appoint its chief general manager Yogesh Dayal as an additional director in RBL Bank for up to two years from December 24, 2021. The scrip lost a further 10 per cent intraday on December 30 after the central bank approved the appointment of interim managing director and CEO of the lender Rajeev Ahuja for a period of three months.
 
The list further highlighted that companies like Vakrangee, Astrazeneca Pharma India, Hathway Cable & Datacom, DCB Bank, Whirlpool of India, Amara Raja Batteries, Jubilant Pharmova, Responsive Industries, MAS Financial Services, SpiceJet, Wockhardt, Procter & Gamble Health, Johnson Controls - Hitachi Air Conditioning India and Aarti Drugs have also declined over 25 per cent YTD.
 
Commenting on the New Year, Vikas Singhania, director, TradeSmart said, “We feel that 2022 will be a year of consolidation. The biggest risk in the market presently is the spread of Coronavirus and its variants that keep on mutating. Unless we have a strong solution to the menace, markets will continue to remain volatile.”
 
“Volatility may rise as apart from external reasons we have some important state elections that will keep markets on the edge. However, a defined investment style and regular investments through SIPs will pay off in the long run,” said Singhania.
 
Manish Jain, fund Manager, Ambit Asset Management said, “Investors should focus on infrastructure, rural and agricultural themes. Invest in quality, good and clean companies and do not fear and invest for growth.”

Also read: Year Ender 2021: These stocks rallied over 1,000%; do you own them?