2021: A stock odyssey

The Covid-19 count may have seen wild swings, but for investors, 2021 was a year of gains. Here’s a round up of listed, unlisted and the rich listers that came out on top in 2021.

Indian companies raised a record Rs 1.3 lakh crore from the primary market. Some of India’s decacorns are heading towards megacorn status – here are the top gainers, from the cohort of IPOs of 2021 and the biggest valuation jumps that privately-held startups saw this year.

This was undoubtedly the year of the unicorn for India’s startup ecosystem. What was for the better part of a decade a trickle developed into a stampede as 39 startups achieved billion-dollar valuations this year.

A healthy mix of foreign and local money at an appropriate time took the total market capitalisation of the Indian market to a record level. It catapulted India’s position into the top six markets by market capitalisation — on par with France, and right on the heels of the UK.

Index heavyweights were the largest gainers in terms of absolute market capitalisation...

...and the biggest wealth creators saw their share price rise more than 400%.

On the corporate group side, the Tata group and Adani group added Rs7.32 lakh crore and Rs 5.23 lakh crore of market value in 2021, respectively.