Industry shares outsail Sensex

 Shipping company executives used to bemoan in private that the stock markets never rewarded them for their performance. Today the story is quite different.

 Shipping company stocks have clearly outperformed the BSE Sensex and the BSE 500 by wide margins. The driver for this has clearly been the surging freight rates.

 While the Sensex and the BSE 500 have risen by 70 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively, in the period between March 31, 2003 and October 31, the minimum jump in the price of shipping stocks has been over 100 per cent. The trend continued in November too.

 The biggest gainer has clearly been Mercator Lines whose stock price has jumped a whopping 844.47 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). It was traded at Rs 204.95 on November 25 against Rs 21.70 on March 31.

 The big three of the Indian shipping industry