Stock watch: Top losers and gainers of 2019

Equity markets are all but predictable. While market watchers look at indices to get a sense of market trends, what matters most is the performance of stocks.

Like every year, in 2019 as well, there are both value creators and losers. Here is the absolute percentage change in the adjusted closing prices of the S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 companies at the end of the year (December 31) compared to the beginning of the year (January 1, 2019).

On absolute price change basis, among the 30 Sensex companies, 11 – or 36.7% – saw negative change in the range of 0.14% (Sun Pharmaceuticals) to 31.3% (Mahindra & Mahindra). Of the remaining 63.3% (19 companies), eight saw price rise between 28.03% (Titan Company) to 59.44% (Bajaj Finance), while another eight saw price increase between 10.1% (Infosys) to 20.16% (Axis Bank). Three companies from the Sensex saw price rise between 0.89% (Ultratech Cement) to 6.66% (Hindustan Unilever).

Out of the Nifty 50, 25 companies—50% of the index universe—saw negative change in prices ranging between 0.14% (Sun Pharmaceuticals) to 74.52% (YES Bank). Of the remaining 25 which saw positive change at the end of the year, compared to the beginning of the year, there were 10 companies which saw a positive price change in the range of 28.03% (Titan Company) to 59.44% (Bajaj Finance), while 10 companies saw price increase between 10.1% (Infosys) to 20.16% (Axis Bank). The remaining five saw a positive price change between 0.09% (Wipro) and 6.66% (Hindustan Unilever).

Beyond the bell-weather stocks, the top 20 value creators and destroyers from 893 stocks together which belong to S&P BSE 500, S&P BSE MidCap, and S&P BSE SmallCap are encapsulated here.