Flashback: How the markets fared in 2009

2009 will go down in history as one of the best for Indian equity markets, after 1993 and 1999—this year, they have emerged among the top-four performing markets in the world. CNBC-TV18's Varinder Bansal and Vidhi Godiawala report.

It was the calm after the storm, and a much-needed one at that. After the carnage witnessed in 2008, 2009 saw the global equity markets calming down and the Indian markets made the most of this, becoming one of the top four performers in the world.

Foreign institutional investors played their part. They pumped in nearly USD 17 billion over the year. Of this, nearly USD 7 billion came from QIPs, USD 3.3 billion came from IPOs, and over USD 3 billion came from ADRs and GDRs.

Helping the India markets along were sectors like metals, automobiles, and technology.

Girish Paranjpe, ED and Joint CEO, Wipro, said, "We have demonstrated that we are a very resilient sector and we are able to manage demand fluctuations and manage margins very well. That should be a matter of great satisfaction for investors in this sector."

The tech index rose 130%, and the auto index rose 200%, but both these performance were eclipsed by the metals index, which surged 230% over the year.

Jindal Steel & Power led the way, gaining nearly 380% followed by Sterlite, which rose 225%, SAIL which rose 205%, Hindalco, which rose 200%, and Tata Steel which gained 180%.

And 2010 should be a good year as well.

Naveen Jindal, Executive VC and MD, JSPL, said, "There is going to be huge demand for steel as per capita steel consumption is still quite low in India—its almost 14th of Chinese steel consumption. Steel prices are depressed as of now but I feel we are concentrating more on reducing our cost of production also but it is a temporary phase."

The banking sector also bounced back smartly from 2008's drubbing. Most banking stocks gained around 100% each in 2009 but walking away with the honours are IndusInd Bank with a 270% rise, Central Bank, up 240%, and Yes Bank, with a 233% rise.

Yes Bank says this has been on the back of a strong business performance.

Rana Kapoor, Founder, MD and CEO, Yes Bank, said, "We have been deriving approximately 48-50% from non interest income sources which are fairly well diversified across treasury, across advisory, transactional banking and branch banking."

However, not all sectors had a ball. Some heavyweights like HUL, Idea, and DLF posted just modest gains. The telecom sector took the worst beating, as tariff wars kept investors away.

Over the year, Reliance Communications fell 20%, and Bharti Airtel was down 10%.

Akhil Gupta, MD, Bharti Enterprises, said, "On telecom, surely the price wars have some pressure on the tariffs but what we mean is that they must be sustainable tariffs for everybody to grow in this business."

CEOs are confident that 2010 will be a good year, after all, they have survived the upheavals in late-2008, and the uncertainty of 2009. But analysts are not so gung-ho. They say that while 2009 has given strong returns to the brave, 2010 may not see a sustained bull run, as markets consolidate.

Source: CNBC-TV18 : http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/cnbc-tv18-analyst-markets/indian-markets-boom2009-an-analysis_432585.html