360 BSE 500 stocks bleed in August, 65 lose in double-digits; Maruti & KIOCL shine with up to 28% jump

Trump’s tariff moves, coupled with weak Q1 earnings, weighed on domestic equities in August, pulling the BSE 500 index down nearly 2% during the month.. The gloom on D-Street was evident as 360 stocks in the broader index ended lower, with 65 names plunging up to 24%. PSU, infrastructure, and energy stocks bore the brunt, while autos, consumer discretionary, and durables outperformed on optimism around GST reforms.

The headline BSE index settled 1.7% lower in August amid a sell-off worth Rs 34,993 crore by the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Biggest monthly laggards

PNB Housing Finance was the biggest loser as the counter slipped 24% in August. It was followed by Hikal and HEG, which were down 21% and 19%, respectively. Others like Thermax, Balaji Amines, Bayer CropScience, Elgi Equipments, Dhanuka Agritech, Symphony and Praj Industries were among the top 10 losers, falling between 19% and 16%.Widely tracked stocks like Kalyan Jewellers India, Easy Trip Planners, Angel One, Balkrishna Industries, Tata Elxsi, Welspun Living, Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL), Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), REC, Bharat Dynamics (BDL), Oil India, Biocon, Sobha, Tata Communications, IIFL Finance and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) also fell in double digits.

Top August gainers

Nearly 130 stocks ended in the green, and in these 23 scrips rallied 10% or more, with top returns of 28% recorded by KIOCL. Uno Minda, Godfrey Phillips India and Hero MotoCorp were net big gainers, returning 23%, 21% and 19%, respectively.The other most tracked stocks with double-digit returns included Maruti Suzuki India, TVS Motor Company, CreditAccess Grameen, PVR Inox, Eicher Motors, Avenue Supermarts (DMart), One97 Communications (Paytm), and Lemon Tree Hotels.

Sensex performance

Sensex’s 1.7% fall was on account of underperformance from heavyweights like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, which fell nearly 6% each. The top Nifty loser was Sun Pharmaceuticals, which settled 7% on a monthly basis. In the 30-stock index, 19 closed in the negative.

The top performer was Maruti Suzuki with 17% returns, riding on twin triggers – the likelihood of Goods and Services Tax (GST) cut to 18% from the current 28% and the commencement of e-Vitara production at the company’s Gujarat facility.

Meanwhile, Titan Company, Trent, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Ultratech Cement, Eternal, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra, State Bank Of India (SBI) and Tata Motors were up between 8% and 0.4%.

Sector snapshot

Among the most punished sectors were BSE CPSE (-4.8%), BSE India Infrastructure Index (-4.7), BSE Oil & Gas (-4.7%), BSE Power (-4.6%), BSE Private Bank Index (4.5%), BSE Realty (4.5%) and BSE Capital Goods (4%).

The top performing sectors were BSE Auto (5.8%), BSE Consumer Discretionary (2.5%) and BSE Consumer Durables (2%). Among themes, the BSE IPO stood tall at 4% uptick.

BSE 150 MidCap and BSE Smallcap indices closed 2% and 3.7 lower in August.

(Data Inputs by Ritesh Presswala)

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