500 top stocks add Rs 5,40,000 crore since Apr 2; Ujjivan, Equitas, IndusInd lead gainers

While the 'Liberation Day' Trump tariffs on April 2 sent shockwaves across asset classes, a pause on them for 90 days brought the much-needed relief for the domestic stock market, with as many 315 out of top 500 domestic stocks turning positive since the tariff jolts. Lesser impact of trade war and falling yields with limited rise in risk premium supported market valuations, analysts said as the Indian market outperformed global peers during the period mentioned.

Data showed many financial stocks led the BSE500 gainers in this period, as brokerages turned positive on the segment due to its domestic focus. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd and Home First Finance Company India Ltd have climbed 22.31 per cent and 21.58 per cent, respectively, since April 2. Equitas Small Finance Bank Ltd also gained 14.81 per cent during the same period. CreditAccess Grameen Ltd and IndusInd Bank surged 14.68 per cent and 12.80 per cent, respectively.

Archean Chemical Industries Ltd, NBCC (India) Ltd, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd, JBM Auto Ltd and Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd gained 14-19 per cent during this period.

Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd, Just Dial Ltd, Jyothy Labs Ltd, Five-Star Business Finance Ltd, Kaynes Technology India Ltd, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Engineers India Ltd and Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd were some other stocks rising over 10 per cent each since April 2.

In total, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE 500 stocks jumped Rs 5.4 lakh crore to Rs 3,73,35,801 crore from Rs 3,67,95,628 crore. The index accounts for nearly 88 per cent of the BSE m-cap. Since the tariff announcements on ‘Liberation Day’ (2 April 2025), the Indian markets are up 2 per cent in dollar terms, making them among the best-performing markets globally since that day.

"Within India, investor interest has largely been in domestic-focused sectors that have outperformed since 2 April 2025. The prominent outperformers are telecom, consumer, financials, and cement. IT and metal have underperformed," Nomura noted.

Morgan Stanley said major improvements seen in the macro balance and foreign exchange reserve coverage as well as the large structural inflows to  domestic equity-oriented savings products gives it comfort that major de-rating for India from current levels is unlikely at this point.

"India remains expensive versus EM but premiums have compressed  after underperformance since 4Q24. We see potential for solid earnings outperformance from domestic-facing sectors, including Financials, Industrials and  Consumer Discretionary," Morgan Stanley said.

Meanwhile, stocks such as Wipro Ltd, Sonata Software Ltd, Apar Industries Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd, National Aluminium Company Ltd, Vedanta Ltd, Indraprastha Gas Ltd, KPIT Technologies Ltd, TBO Tek Ltd and Coforge Ltd declined 10-15 per cent during the same period.