Even though the stock markets faced several tremors mid-year, which had sent the Sensex crashing on many an occasion, the year ended on quite positive note, as reflected by the handsome gains made by this barometer index.

By mid-May, in fact, when the Sensex was just above the 14,500-point level, market capitalisation at the Mumbai exchange topped the $1 trillion mark.The index stood at 13,786.91 points at the close of 2006 and in the 52 weeks of trading during 2007, it scaled many a peak to decisively end above the 20,000-point mark to close at 20,286.99 points on December 31. This translated into a gain of 6,500.08 points, or 47.15 per cent.

Small-cap shares

If large-cap stocks were the flavour of 2006, small-cap shares dominated this year—with the index for such stocks rising 93.67 per cent. Even mid-cap index outperformed the Sensex, by gaining over 68 per cent, as per data with the 138-year-old BSE. The bourse’s index for 500 stocks was up 61 per cent, while those for 200 and 500 stocks gained over 58 per cent each. But not all counters could give matching returns, as sector-specific indices of BSE showed. IT index actually fell 13.67 per cent, while those for auto and technology stocks grew by just 1.39 per cent and 8.20 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, the metal index outperformed the Sensex twice over, and ended the year with a gain of over 120 per cent, while that for power was not far behind with 119.33 per cent.