Stocks that defied the benchmark to hit life-time highs

By Ravi Dutta Mishra

Mumbai, Sep 18 (IANS) Indian equity markets, for the past three months, fell sharply after the Union Budget on July 5 failed to inspire confidence among domestic and foreign investors, worried over softening growth.

But about a dozen stocks managed to buck the broadly negative trend which saw the benchmark Sensex falling significantly from its life time high of 40,000 after the election results to 36,563.88 on Wednesday.

Amid a general gloomy Indian equity markets, blue chip IT majors Infosys and TCS managed to hits their 52-week high earlier in this month.

While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) hit its 52-week high of Rs 2,296 apiece on September 3, Infosys touched it on September 6 at Rs 847.40 per share.

Similarly, pharma stocks Apollo Hostipal and Abbott India also hit their 52-week highs earlier in the month.

Apollo Hospital hit the high at Rs 1,574.95 on September 12, Abbott India surged to its 52-week high of Rs 1,0015 on Monday.

Dr Lal PathLabs on September 13 touched its 52-week high of Rs 1,360 apiece from Rs 1,110.3 per share three months ago.

With its low-cost model, Indigo also proved to be resilient from the general downturn in the aviation sector as its touched its 52-week high of Rs 1,737.95 apeice on September 12.

Even, SpiceJet which saw its shares gaining the most after Jet Airways stopped operation, fell from its 52-week high of Rs 156.90 apiece to Rs 126.85 on Wednesday.

Investors also seemed to invest their capital in life insurance companies, as HDFC Life Insurance and SBI Life Insurance also hit their highest level last month. While the former surged to its 52 week high of Rs 569.60 on August 27, the later did it on August 20 at Rs 862.40 apiece.

(Ravi Dutta Mishra can be contacted at ravidutta.m@ians.in)