Indian equity markets posted a robust performance in June, primarily driven by small and medium sized companies. According to a report by brokerage Motilal Oswal, the Nifty Microcap 250 and Nifty Smallcap 250 indices were the best performers, clocking impressive monthly growth of 11.56% and 7.90%, respectively.
The Nifty Microcap 250 index, which monitors the performance of the 250 smallest companies in the Nifty 500 universe, has been performing exceptionally well: in the past three months, six months and one year, the index has registered impressive growth rates of 21.51%, 23.48% and 75.24%, respectively.
The Nifty Smallcap 250 index, which represents the next tier in terms of market capitalisation, has performed well with returns of 19.40% in the past three months, 21.86% in the past six months and 62.28% in the past one year.
While small and medium sized companies have been in the spotlight, other market segments have also performed well. The Nifty Midcap 50 index rose 7.89% in June, taking its longer-term gains to 17.26% in three months, 21.99% in six months and 55.45% over the past year. Moreover, the Nifty 500 index, which includes the broadest range of companies, rose 6.90% in June, taking its longer-term gains to 11.38% in three months, 16.11% in six months and 37.31% over the past year.
All sectoral indices rose with the IT sector leading the recovery with a rise of 11.7 per cent, followed by consumer durables at 9.19 per cent.
The real estate and automobile sectors also showed positive growth with increases of 8.37% and 7.60% respectively. Notably, the real estate sector surged 112.45% in the past one year.
The energy sector expanded by 3.81% in June. Over the past year, it has grown by a robust 69.21%. The banking and healthcare sectors posted similar growth rates of 6.86% and 6.62% respectively in June. In contrast, the metals sector struggled, posting a modest growth of 0.93% for the month.
“During the volatile election month, the Low Volatility factor performed best, rising 6.6 per cent, followed by the Quality factor, which rose 4.12 per cent. However, Momentum and Enhanced Value factors were similar, rising 3.33 per cent and 3.10 per cent,” the Motilal Oswal report said.
All sectors in the Nifty 500 posted positive contributions with financial services, consumer discretionary and IT leading the way, collectively contributing 4.3% to the overall gains.
