Janta curfew to total unlock: D-St mints 2.5x returns; Adani firms' m-cap soars 937%!

NEW DELHI: From janta curfew on March 22,2020, and the first ever Covid-induced lockdown announced two days later, to the announcement of no Covid curbs from March 31, 2022, this week, India has come a long way in its fight against the pandemic.

The stock market, which initially went haywire due to the fear of the unknown, recouped as soon as things became “known unknown”, with investor wealth, as suggested by BSE market capitalisation, jumping 2.5 times during the period.

Shares of many large corporate houses delivered multibagger returns, as high as 8,300 per cent, with the combined market value of Adani and Jindal group stocks rising the most.

Data showed the Adani group market capitalisation jumped a whopping 937 per cent during this period to Rs 12.13 lakh crore from mere Rs 1.17 lakh crore on March 23, 2020, the day benchmark indices plunged to multi-year lows.

All six Adani group stocks delivered strong returns, with Adani Total Gas (up 2,200 per cent), Adani Enterprises (up 1,415.68 per cent), Adani Green Energy (up 1,324.56 per cent) and Adani Transmission (1,215.69 per cent) delivering over 1,000 per cent returns. Adani Power and Adani Ports and SEZ also delivered solid returns of 457 per cent and 272 per cent, respectively. The rally made Gautam Adani world's 11th richest and India's second richest with $93.6 billion in fortunes.

Four out of six Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group stocks more than doubled during this period. The combined market value of the six firms went up by 213 per cent in the two-year period. As of today, Mukesh Ambani remains India's richest and the world's 10 richest person with $96.4 billion wealth.

Network 18 Media & Investments, one of the group stocks, rallied 429 per cent in the two month period. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure jumped 330 per cent while the group's flagship Reliance Industries soared 213 per cent during the same period. Another stock Hathway Bhawani Cabletel & Datacom added 127 per cent.

29 of Tata Group companies saw their combined market value rising 179 per cent during the period. Tata Teleservices Maharashtra soared 8327 per cent; Automotive Stampings and Assemblies zoomed 3,799 per cent and Tata Elxsi 1,446 per cent.

Tejas Networks, Tata Power Company, Tayo Rolls, Tata Motors and Tinplate Company Of India saw a 500-765 per cent surge. Market values of Nelco, Tata Steel BSL, Tata Communications and Tata Steel jumped over 400 per cent.

Aditya Birla group saw 203 per cent jump in market value of eight listed entities. These stocks, including Hindalco, Grasim, Vodafone Idea, UltraTech Cement and Tanfac Industries, jumped 100-711 per cent during the two-year period.

Meanwhile, 11 of OP Jindal group firms saw a 439 per cent jump in market value. Five of the stocks rallied 500-960 per cent. Five others jumped 200-400 per cent. Jindal Saw also doubled investor money.