90% of BSE 500 stocks in the red this year

MUMBAI: Since the beginning of the current year, investors on Dalal Street have lost Rs 8 lakh crore. Ask any retail investor on the Street, and there is every likelihood that he has lost money. One of the main reasons for this is most retail investors invest in midcap and smallcap stocks, rather than in the frontline stocks that make up the 30-share sensex or the 50-share nifty.

Market players said the stocks that make up the BSE 500 index are the ones which are regularly traded and are also a mix of frontline as well as midcap stocks. In addition, according to BSE data, these stocks together also account for about 90% of BSE's total market capitalization.

Consider this: In 2011, of the 500 stocks that constitute the BSE 500 index, which include the sensex and nifty constituents in it, investors have made money in just 49 stocks, that is only about 10% of these 500 have given positive returns in the current year. In the remaining 451 stocks they have lost money. Seen another way, if an investor had bought 10 stocks from the basket of BSE 500, in only one stocks he would have made money, losing in the other nine.

BSE data showed that among this pack of 500, there are at least four stocks which have less than halved in value: Aqua Logistics is down 57.4% to Rs 17, Allied Digital is down 56% to Rs 83, Patel Engineering is off 53% to Rs 142 and Spicejet is down 51% to Rs 40. On the other hand, from among the stocks in which investors have made money, the top ones are Gujarat Fluorochemicals up 42% at Rs 309, Bombay Rayon Fashions up 27% at Rs 252 and Bajaj Finserv up 22% at Rs 564.

If one considers a slightly longer period, say from July 1, 2010, from this pack of 500 stocks, 320 have given negative return while in 174 stocks investors have made money. There are six stocks in this index which were listed post July 1.

On an aggregate basis, however, investors have actually made money with BSE's market capitalization now at Rs 65.2 lakh crore , compared to Rs 63.8 lakh crore then.


And the top gainers are Wockhardt, which has more than doubled to Rs 354 now, and Jindal Poly, which too have gained over 100% to Rs 426 now. On the other hand, among the top laggards are JMD Telefilms, down 87% at Rs 16, and DB Realty, off 71% at Rs 109 now.