Nifty jumps 100% since March 2020 lows; but these stocks are still trading below pre-pandemic levels

A couple of stocks are still trading below their pre-pandemic level despite the ongoing rally on Dalal Street since March 2020. Where the benchmark BSE Sensex has gained 97% to 52,484 on July 2, 2021 against 26,674 on March 24 last year, the NSE Nifty index has gained 102% during the same period.

Data shows that select players are still trading below their pre-Covid levels. Some of the stocks in the list including ITC, Maruti Suzuki India, ONGC, Indian Oil Corp, Coal India, HDFC AMC, PVR, Bata India, Bharti Airtel, L&T Finance, Inox Leisure, IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank, Bandhan Bank, and Punjab National Bank are among the stocks that have disappointed investors.

Future Retail, YES Bank, Future Consumer, DCB Bank, GE Power, Chalet Hotels and Raymond, have seen the most erosion in their stock prices since the start of the pandemic. They have registered losses to the tune of 40-81%.

Analysts have attributed the low or negative returns in automobile and auto-ancillary stocks to the multiple lockdowns across the country.

As per analysts, banking and financial stocks faced more downside owing to the loan moratoriums and rising bad loans. The recovery of loans has also been hit by the lockdowns.

ITC, a leader in the FMCG space, witnessed negative returns owing to a decrease in demands of cigarettes and its thriving hotel business. Nosediving crude oil prices, coupled with lower demand, have battered the oil and gas sector and its stocks. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel on the other hand gave negligible returns since the onset of the pandemic due to no increase in tariffs.

Overall, sustained inflows by foreign institutional investors and robust liquidity measures taken by the RBI and the government aided the rally on Dalal Street since the eruption of the pandemic in 2020.