Oldies steal show

In what could be called the revenge of the old economy counters, steel, textiles, construction, sugar, cement, and automobiles stocks have emerged the major gainers in the last five years, displacing information technology, communication and entertainment (ICE) stocks as the market drivers.

Five years ago, the BSE Sensex had zoomed to an all-time high of 6,150 in intra-day trading on February 14, 2000. The surge was driven by the boom in the ICE counters.

However, that has been the last time that the ICE scrips had driven up the Sensex. Even five years hence, technology stocks have not recovered to their former glory.

Today, as the Sensex closed at an all-time high of 6679.33, with an intra-day high of 6719.20, technology scrips were just one of the day's drivers.

A comparison of stock valuations between February 14, 2000 and February 14, 2005, shows that the valuation of stocks in the entertainment sector has declined by 92.1 per cent, telecommunication by 80.3 per cent and information technology by 63.9 per cent.

In contrast, about 65 old economy sectors have gained between 104.6 to 1,547 per cent in the last five years.

Among the major gainers, stocks in the ferro alloys sector have surged a mammoth 1,547 per cent in valuations, sponge and pig iron by 1,186 per cent, mining 945 per cent, non ferrous metal by 809 per cent, textiles by 731 per cent, chemicals by 644 per cent and steel hot rolled/cold rolled products by 568 per cent.

The toppers in the gainers list are Matrix Laboratories, Vimta Laboratories, Gujarat NRE Coke, Geodesic Information Systems, Bilcare, Aban Loyd Chiles and Aarvee Denim "" these stocks were relative non-entities in 2000.

These stocks are among some 80 scrips that have appreciated by a whopping 1000 per cent plus in the last five years.

The then front-runner stocks such as Zee Telefilms, Pentamedia Graphics, Himachal Futuristics, HCL Technologies and VSNL have not only lost their top rankings in terms of market capitalisation, but have lost over 50 per cent each in their price.

IT major Wipro, which was at number one in the 2000 boom, is now ranked at number 7 in the current market cap ranking. Wipro's stock has fallen by 68 per cent from Rs 2,183 to Rs 695 (adjusted for bonus) while its market cap fell from Rs 1,53,279 crore to Rs 48,821 crore.

Another IT stalwart, Infosys Technologies slipped 4 notches from 2nd position to 6th. Its market cap slipped from Rs 71,704 crore to Rs 56,066 crore.

In contrast to the tech stocks, the old economy stocks like ONGC, Reliance Industries and State Bank of India (SBI) have improved their positions in the market cap table. ONGC with a market cap of Rs 1, 17,026 crore is now ranked at number 1 from number 9 in 2000.