With 2013 nearing its end, 78% or 2,415 of the 3,095 actively trading stocks have managed to hit 52-week highs in the current calendar year. The majority of these stocks belong to IT, capital goods and pharma sector.
The sharp depreciation in the Indian rupee between August and October ? a 11% fall? drew investors to export-oriented sectors. The BSE IT Index gained 8.03%, while BSE Healthcare index surged 12.06% during this period.
The heavy buying seen in these sectors catapulted scrips such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies to their 52-week highs. Even mid-cap names like Vakrangee, Persistent Systems and Hexaware Technologies touched their 52-week highs. As many as 159 IT scrips have touched their 52-week highs.
Within the pharma sector, which like IT gains a significant proportion of its revenues in dollars, as many as 123 scrips made it to their 52-week highs. Sun Pharmaceutical, Dr Reddy?s Laboratories, Lupin, Cipla, Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cadila Healthcare have touched 52-week highs during the year. Among their mid-cap counterparts, Pfizer, Ajanta Pharma and Wockhardt touched their 52-week highs.
Experts feel markets? preference for IT and pharma has stemmed from the relative earnings visibility. ?The rupee?s slide acted only as a tailwind to the quarterly earnings of export-oriented sectors, the underlying demand trend is the bigger structural driver for earnings in these sectors,? said Lalit Nambiar, fund manager, UTI AMC.
Apart from the defensives, cyclical stocks also joined the party on expectations of a changing capex cycle. In the current calendar year, as many as 124 capital goods scrips rose to their 52-week highs. Engine manufacturer Cummins India, power infrastructure supplier BHEL and engineering major Siemens have seen their shares touch 52-week highs.
While the BSE Capital Goods index declined 37.24% till September, the index has outperformed IT and pharma sector during the rally with a 47.51% gain. BSE IT and healthcare indices have gained 13.10% and 12.48% during the rally. Markets have rallied nearly 15% since beginning of September making new life-time highs.
Among other sectors, FMCG has seen 57 scrips touch 52-week highs, 41 bank stocks have touched 52-week highs and 104 metal stocks ? steel and non-ferrous ? have climbed to their 52-week highs in CY13.
