CNX Nifty Junior outshines all barometers, rockets 133%

The National Stock Exchange's CNX Nifty Junior index outperformed all other indices, including the headline-grabbing Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty in the current calendar year.

The CNX Nifty Junior has more than doubled from 1413.05 on December 31, 2002, to 3285.70 on December 24, 2003 "" a 133 per cent appreciation.

In comparison, the Sensex gained 67 per cent during the same period and the S&P CNX Nifty 65 per cent.

Other NSE indices too gained "" the CNX Midcap 200 rose 131 per cent, S&P CNX 500 was up 91 per cent and S&P CNX Defty rose 74 per cent.

The indices of growth
Major Indices	24-Dec-03	% chg*	Sector indices	24-Dec-03	% chg*	World indices	24-Dec-03	% chg*
CNX Nifty Junior	3285.70	132.53	Capital Goods	2274.93	160.86	Nasdaq	1969.04	47.44
CNX Midcap 200	1759.30	131.30	PSU Index	3621.17	129.41	Dow	10305.19	23.54
BSE 500	2277.31	93.53	Cons. Durables	1459.09	99.36	S&P 500	1094.04	24.35
S&P CNX 500	1475.00	90.85	Bankex	2670.15	98.86	Shanghai Compo	1511.86	11.36
BSE 200	735.55	86.67	Healthcare	2468.78	93.81	Nikkei 225	10371.27	20.89
BSE 100	2940.26	76.63	BSE TECk	1269.14	39.20	Karachi 100	4420.10	63.62
BSE Sensex	5641.92	67.06	FMCG	1093.46	33.40	SET	723.39	102.93
S&P CNX Nifty	1808.70	65.40	IT	2021.38	20.40	Straits Times	1725.87	28.70
* Change over December 31, 2002

The BSE 500, which is largest gainer among the BSE indices, rocketed 94 per cent; other indices of the bourse such as BSE 200 gained 87 per cent, BSE 100 77 per cent and Dollex 30 rose 76 per cent during calendar 2003.

The CNX Nifty Junior's whopping gains came from 28 stocks, whose prices appreciated over 100 per cent apiece during this period.

Only two scrips in the CNX Nifty Junior lost in the year. The prices of 48 scrips appreciated between 11 per cent and 368 per cent.

Of the 50 stocks that make up the Nifty, the prices of ten climbed over 200 per cent each, 18 between 100 per cent and 200 per cent and 13 between 50 per cent and 100 per cent.

Bharti Tele-Ventures was the largest gainer, posting a 368 per cent jump from Rs 22.90 on December 31, 2002, to Rs 107.20 on Wednesday on the NSE.

The Great Eastern Shipping scrip increased five-fold in value, from Rs 32.65 to Rs 147.75 in the same period.

The Aurobindo Pharma scrip jumped from Rs 104.87 to Rs 430.50, Moser Baer from Rs 77.10 to Rs 293.15, and of Bharat Electronics from Rs 174.65 to Rs 600.20 on the BSE.

Among the sector indices, the BSE capital goods index outperformed the others posting an appreciation of 161 per cent "" from 872.10 to 2274.93.

The BSE PSU index came second with a 129 per cent rise to 3621.17 (from 1578.47), followed by the consumer durable index which gained 99 per cent to 1459.09 (from 731.89), banking index Bankex by 99 per cent to 2670.75 (from 1342.76), healthcare index by 94 per cent to 2468.78 (from 1273.82) and the TECk index by 39 per cent to 1269.14 from 911.75.

Among Asian Indices, Thailand's SET rose 103 per cent from its level on December 31, 2002, while the Jakarta Composite gained 66 per cent, while the Karachi 100 rose 64 per cent.

The Sri Lanka All Share climbed 33 per cent from its December 31, 2002 level followed by the Singapore Strait Times, with a 29 per cent gain and the Seoul Composite by 26 per cent.

Other Asia-Pacific majors such as the Nikkei-225 gained 21 per cent, Shanghai Composite gained 12 per cent, but were relatively far behind the Indian indices.