Two years after nationwide lockdown, markets sit pretty with big gains

The market is still pretty with two-year returns for Nifty at 2.3 times, while the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 were up a sharper 2.7 times and 3.1 times, respectively.

Exactly two years ago, the market saw one of its biggest single-day drops, plunging 13 per cent as Covid-19 infections forced the government to announce a complete shutdown, raising a question mark over the economic outlook.
 

Stocks nosedived over 40 per cent from their 2020 highs as investors grappled with the impact of the pandemic. On March 23, 2020 few would have predicted that the markets would more than double in just a few mo­nths. The aggressive stimulus measures and post-pandemic resp­onse from governments and global central banks, mainly the US Federal Reserve, saw stocks rise like a phoenix.
 

“Central