As Santa bails on Dalal Street, domestic investors come to the rescue
Sensex is on track to end December marginally in the red, extending last year’s weak finish and marking the sixth time in close to a decade that the benchmark index has closed the holiday month with losses.A Mint analysis shows the index headed for a modest decline of about 0.2% in December, following a 2% fall in December 2024. The only worse December in recent years was 2022, when the Sensex dropped almost 4%.
This subdued performance contrasts sharply with December 2020 and 2023, when markets surged 8.2% and 7.8%, respectively.That weakness stands out because December has historically been one of the strongest months for Indian equities.Over the past 46 years, the market has delivered positive returns in roughly three out of every four Decembers. Often, those gains were outsized: December ranked among the top three performing months 12 times and placed fourth or fifth another 12 times.
Yet it has also delivered sharp losses, emerging as the worst-performing month in both 1990 and 2014. This year, after the sharpest fall of 5.5% in February, followed by declines in January, July and August, December is on track to be the fifth-worst month of 2025.Despite the weak finish, the damage has been far more contained than it could have been.
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