While the stock markets made recovery on Friday, clawing back some of their losses over the past week, stocks in the consumer goods segment made little headway. Analysts say that this is primarily due to the fact that mounting travel restrictions are expected to keep the demand environment muted and stocks in the segment are seen taking the brunt of the overall downturn in demand. India’s stock markets have had the worst week in over a decade, with the BSE Sensex finishing Friday at 34,103.5 points, over nine per cent lower than its close on the previous Friday (37,576). The NSE Nifty also witnessed a similar quantum of value destruction.

However, while a sharp decline in itself, the last minute resurgence on Friday saw the index zooming an unprecedented 5,500 points after a 3,000 point plunge earlier in the day led to a one-hour trade suspension. While this recovery led by bargain hunters helped the markets cap weekly losses at below nine per cent, the same could not be said for stocks in the consumer goods segment. According to BSE data, while the Sensex ended Friday up by 4.04 per cent compared to the previous day, the BSE FMCG index saw only a 0.28 per cent improvement.

The BSE indices for both consumer durables and consumer discretionary goods and services also saw similarly lacklustre performances on a day when several stocks broke all-time records on both ends of the spectrum. On a weekly basis, the BSE FMCG index was down by 9.5 per cent, consumer durables by 9.63 per cent and consumer discretionary goods by 9.8 per cent, all several basis points steeper than the general indices and substantially lower than then the top performing indices of Friday, especially those like banking, energy, and other financial services, which saw a more than five per cent improvement.

The worst performing FMCG stocks during Friday on the BSE FMCG Index were ADF Foods (-14.32 per cent), Godrej Agro (-9.54 per cent), Bajaj Consumer (-8.21 per cent), Triveni Industries (-7.85 per cent), Renuka Sugars (-5.21 per cent), Future Consumer (-4.94 per cent), Nestle India (-4.12 per cent) and Dalmia Sugars (-3.76 per cent).

Worst performance in week in over a decade
India’s stock markets have had the worst week in over a decade, with the BSE Sensex finishing Friday at 34,103.5 points, over nine per cent lower than its close on the previous Friday (37,576)