On the face of it, this might appear to be an even score, but it means that an investor who entered the stock market at the beginning of the fiscal has suffered losses on one stock out of every two purchased.

According to an analysis of market values of close to 2,360 companies that were listed on the bourses at the beginning of the current fiscal and whose shares are still being actively traded, the market value has taken a hit or remain almost unchanged for nearly half of them. While close to 1,100 companies have seen their market capitalisations actually dropping from the levels at the beginning of the current fiscal, that of more than 150 companies are almost unchanged from those levels.

Prominent losers

The analysis does not include companies that were listed on the bourses during the fiscal through IPOs, de-merger or as part of other corporate decisions. There were close to 2,500 stocks being traded actively at the beginning of the current fiscal, while the number has grown past 2,700 at present. Besides, the list of the prominent losers in the course of the current fiscal includes TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Tata Motors, Hindustan Zinc, HCL Technologies, M&M, Cipla and Indian Hotels. Together, 1,101 companies have lost close to Rs 2,62,000 cr in this fiscal.

However, the total gains registered by the remaining companies stand at about Rs 14,00,000 crore. Collectively, all the companies that were being actively traded on April 2, 2007, have gained Rs 11,38,000 crore.
In a report published towards the end of the last fiscal, India analysts of Morgan Stanley had said if the stock market could be taken as a game of snakes and ladders, there could be more encounters with snakes that would take it down to lower levels than with ladders to propel it to higher.