In Charts: The Worst Fiscal In 11 For Indian Stock Market

Forty-five of the Nifty 50 stocks fell in the financial year that ended on March 31, driven down by the worst selloff in more than a decade after the new coronavirus outbreak.

The Nifty 50 Index tumbled nearly 26 percent in 2019-20, the biggest slide in 11 fiscals. That came on the back of a 29 percent decline in the last three months of the financial year, the biggest quarterly selloff since 1992.

Nifty 50 fell to 7,511, its lowest in four years, in March as India went into a three-week lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

The decline was led by selloff in banking and financial stocks. The Nifty Bank index plunged more than 40 percent in the last three months, wiping off gains for all 12 members. Two-thirds of the banking index members saw their value fall over 50 percent in the last 12 months, according to data from Bloomberg.

The Nifty Midcap 100 Index slumped more than 30 percent in March, making it the biggest monthly drop since its inception. This in turn brought down the returns for most mid-sized companies which were on the brink of a recovery after two successive years of underperformance.

Only 16 stocks of the Nifty Midcap 100 Index returned gains in FY20. On the other hand, less than 10 percent of small-cap stocks rose during the same as the gauge for small-sized companies plunged more than 36 percent in March—the most since the global financial crisis of 2008.

All sectoral indices ended the year in the red. The Nifty FMCG Index fell the least, giving up all the gains for the year in the March selloff in March. Nine of the 13 sectoral indices lost over a quarter of their market cap in the last 12 months.

The Indian rupee continued to weaken against the dollar over the course of the year and hit an all-time low of Rs 76.27 in March as the U.S. currency strengthened on the likelihood of a global recession in the first half of the year.

Spot gold rose 24 percent as demand for the safe haven rose as investors braced for prolonged uncertainty in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Crude, on the other hand, crashed over 65 percent because of glut as demand remained subdued. Base metals also remained under pressure as lockdown imposed in several parts of the world curbed demand, pushing stockpiles higher.