

From AI to FPIs, five questions facing Indian stocks in 2026
Meanwhile, the companies creating the AI superstructure are having a golden run on the stock market. Valuations of companies making advanced chips, hardware, data centres, or AI engines are loaded with expectations that AI will find ample and utilitarian business use-cases. Some of the large investment and sourcing deals across these AI companies are interlinked, and fragility in one part of the chain can have a cascading effect.
As past bull markets show, when expectations fail to materialize, market corrections can be severe.One notable shift in the range-bound 2025 market was a reversion to more realistic valuations in the lower end of the stock universe. Over the previous four financial years, stocks that rose far outnumbered those that fell—suggesting that prices may have run ahead of intrinsic value. During this period, the Sensex gained about 55%.In 2025-26, however, of the 4,386 stocks listed on the BSE, only 1,423, or about 32%, have shown gains.
This is the first time since 2020-21 that this number has dropped below 50%. Typically, in a rising market, froth builds in smaller companies. In recent months, the top end of the market has rebounded—the Sensex is only 1% below its September 2024 high.
However, the BSE MidCap and BSE SmallCap indices, which capture the second and third levels of business valuations, are still 6% and 11% below, respectively.The Sensex is currently trading at a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of about 23.5. By comparison, the BSE MidCap and BSE SmallCap indices are both trading at a PE multiple of 32.4. Those are rich valuations, and price in high expectations of earnings growth.
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