Many laggards in a peaking market: Only 1,102 of 3,839 stocks have hit a high on BSE

India’s benchmark stock indices, Sensex and Nifty, have hit new peaks of 30,000 and 9000, respectively, this week but investors who put money in various stocks during the previous market peaks in 2007-08 and 2010 are still not excited. Shares of many companies, including Reliance Industries, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Indian Oil, BHEL, Adani Enterprises, Sesa Sterlite and Ipca Laboratories, among others, are still trading way below their all-time highs of earlier peaks of 2008 or 2010.

As many as 116 out of 266 shares with market capitalisation of over Rs 5,000 crore are trading between 5% and 90% below their record highs hit during 2008 or 2010 peaks, according to the data compiled by ET. Unitech is at the bottom of this universe with a 97% decline from its record high of Rs 546.79 hit on January 2, 2008. Similarly, 157 out of the 350 stocks with market capitalisation between Rs 1,000 core and Rs 5,000 crore are trading between 10% and 99% below their earlier peak hit five years ago.

Many companies have not performed well in the past few years in terms of earnings, while some firms are struggling with high debt-equity ratios. The benchmarks have been driven by IT, pharma, FMCG and private sectors banks. Overall, only 1,102 stocks out of 3,839, which are traded on the BSE, have recorded a new peak in the last one year; rest of the 2,738 stocks are trading below their half decade-old highs.