When going gets tough, the tough get going and how! As many as 10 largecap stocks have hit record highs in June so far and another eight reached 52-week highs even as the benchmark indices are still around 18% away from their January peaks. This reflects the selective approach of investors who are favouring companies with a combination of various factors such as a solid track record, strong leadership, resilient performance during the current economic downturn, and ability to improve balance sheet strength.

Each of these stocks have gained in double digits over the past three months exceeding the 23% gain in the S&P BSE Sensex. The 10 stocks that hit a record high include Reliance Industries (RIL), Britannia Industries, Adani Green Energy, Divis Laboratories, Muthoot Finance, Biocon, Bayer CropScience, PI Industries, Coromandel International, and Syngene International.

The stock of RIL, the largest among them by market capitalisation and the country’s biggest conglomerate with interests in energy, retail and telecom, has doubled in the past three months. Investors favoured the company’s initiatives to deleverage its balance sheet. On Friday, RIL said it raised Rs 1.7 trillion in a span of two months to achieve its objective of making the company debt free.

Adani Green Energy, a solar panel manufacturer, was the biggest gainer in the sample of 10 companies – its stock trebled in three months. The company reported net profit in the March quarter after a series of quarterly losses. In the second week of June, it won a bid from the Solar Energy Corporation of India to develop eight gigawatts of solar cells in the next five years.

With the fear of Covid-19 pandemic, investors have shown a keen interest in select pharma stocks. There are three pharma companies in the sample of 10 including Biocon, Syngene International and Divis Laboratories.

The list of eight large-caps, which hit 52-week highs in June so far, was once again dominated by pharma companies including Jubilant Life Sciences, Cadila Healthcare, Lupin, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Sun Pharma, and Cipla. Torrent Power was the remaining company on this list.