Why Dalal Street’s one-time darlings are struggling to keep the romance going

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Mint. “Newcomers or smaller players tend to take away market share from them. There is also a danger of disruptive technology which can completely unseat leaders, like what happened with Kodak, Blackberry etc.," she added.

Mehra said there is also the phenomenon of overpaying for a company, no matter how attractive the underlying business is. “It is a myth that you can never go wrong buying consumer brands with substantial cash flows. It all depends on the price that you are paying for them.

Not even Warren Buffett has made returns in these types of stocks for the last many decades," she pointed out. Some of us might be captivated by the big, fat Ambani wedding but an even more power-packed union transpired last year. When HDFC Bank, the biggest private sector lender, announced a merger with parent HDFC, the country’s largest housing finance company, the group wrested for itself a seat at the global high table.

HDFC Bank is currently the 11th largest bank in the world with a market capitalization of $140 billion, ahead of marquee names such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. The global bragging rights, however, have not rubbed off on its stock. The reverse, if anything.

HDFC Bank’s share is down around 15% from its level in July 2023, when the merger came into effect. After absorbing HDFC, HDFC Bank widened its lead over its private sector peers. Its advances of over ₹25 trillion (as of December 2023) are double that of ICICI Bank, though below SBI’s ₹36 trillion.