The year 2024 has been full of ups and downs for ‘Dalal Street’. While the Indian stock markets made records several times during the year, on the other hand it also had to face big losses at times. However, despite this, local equities have given positive returns to investors during the year due to domestic fund inflows and strong macro outlook.

Motilal Oswal Wealth Management said in a note that due to strong financial results of companies in the first half of the year, surge in domestic fund inflows and strong macro outlook, Nifty had reached an all-time high of 26,277.35 points in September 2024.

The note said, “In the last two months the market has come down from its all-time high. This was the third major decline in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic. The main reason for this is the massive selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) due to domestic and global factors.

Till December 27 this year, the 30-share BSE Sensex has risen 6,458.81 points or 8.94 percent. At the same time, Nifty of National Stock Exchange has increased by 2,082 points or 9.58 percent. This year was full of many events. Apart from the general elections in India, the presidential elections in America were the main events during the year.

Apart from this, two major geopolitical developments… Israel-Iran conflict and Russia-Ukraine war also had an impact on the stock markets.

In the year 2024, a lot of conflict was seen between bulls and bears. Global macroeconomic data and geopolitical tensions greatly influenced the market, due to which continuous fluctuations were seen in the market. However, despite uncertainties around the world, Indian markets have largely performed well under pressure and given better returns to investors.

“It was also a year of valuation boom, which made Indian markets the most expensive in the world,” said Prashant Tapse, senior vice-president, research, Mehta Equities Ltd. Excess liquidity in the market pushed valuations higher, ultimately resulting in a ‘correction’.

BSE’s 30-share Sensex had reached its record level of 85,978.25 on September 27 this year. On the same day, Nifty also touched its all-time high of 26,277.35 points. 2024 has been the ninth consecutive year that local stock markets have given positive returns to investors. During this period, shares of small and medium companies performed better than big companies. This is the reason why midcap and smallcap stocks have given higher returns to investors than ‘largecap’ stocks.

Santosh Meena, head of research, Swastika Investmart Ltd, said, “However, the performance of Nifty and Sensex has been weaker than the markets of other countries, especially America. The reason for this poor performance is the massive selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

The Sensex has fallen 8.46 percent from its all-time high in September. At the same time, Nifty has fallen by 9.37 percent from the record level.

In October alone, the Sensex was down 4,910.72 points or 5.82 percent. In the same month, Nifty had fallen by 1,605.5 points or 6.22 percent.

So far in December, the Sensex has fallen 1,103.72 points or 1.38 percent. In October, FIIs had withdrawn Rs 94,017 crore from Indian markets.

Last year i.e. in 2023, the Sensex had risen by 11,399.52 points or 18.73 percent. Whereas Nifty had a profit of 3,626.1 points or 20 percent.