The year started on a negative note as the equity bulls were nearly thrashed out by the bears. But the bulls picked themselves up from the ground and the run that they began in March was simply unstoppable.
This tug-of-war between the bulls and the bears on Dalal Street was influenced by a zillion factors that unfolded during the course of the year.
In this special year-ender 2023 section, ETMarkets has tried and wrapped all of those events. So, let’s do a recap of all of those movers and shakers on D-Street.
January
Just when investors were grappling with a high inflation and interest rate situation, US-based Hindenburg Research on January 25, threw a fireball on D-Street through a 106-page report filled with allegations against the Adani Group. The short seller accused the group of financial forgery, corporate misgovernance, stock price rigging, and highly leveraged balance sheets.
The report triggered a massive sell-off in Adani Group stocks, eroding more than $100 billion wealth in just a month. In just 4-days of sell-off then, Gautam Adani had lost his position in the elite club of the world’s 10 richest billionaires.
The other major development that took place was India transitioning to the “T+1” trade settlement cycle. Exchanges in 2022 announced moving to “T+1” from “T+2” trade settlement cycle in phases, and the last phase was implemented on January 27. February
In the aftermath of the sell-off in stocks, Gautam Adani on February 1, called-off the mega Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer in Adani Enterprises, which had managed to scrape through despite the mayhem. As bulls were reeling under the wounds of Adani stocks’ sell-off, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman soothed them with a “Baahubali” Budget, by raising capex allocation, reducing income tax and taking further measures to boost manufacturing.
The National Stock Exchange did a semi-annual review of index constituents, and despite the sell-off in Adani Group stocks, the exchange had made no changes to Nifty 50 constituents.
March
On March 2, US-based GQG Partners made a contra bet, buying more than Rs 15,000 crore worth of shares in four Adani Group companies. Adani Group promoter entity SB Adani Family Trust sold stakes in Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises to the FII.
Just when the bulls were recovering from the wounds of the Adani group sell-off, the world got a rude shock from the sudden collapse of US’ major commercial banks Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank.
April
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed the introduction of an ASBA-like facility for secondary market trading, aimed at simplifying the process of buying and selling shares for investors.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left the repo rate unchanged in its April policy meeting, for the first time after it began the rate hike cycle in May 2022.
May
The Rs 4,326 crore initial public offer (IPO) of Mankind Pharma hit the market, and this was the largest public issue by a pharmaceutical company since the IPO of Gland Pharma in 2020.
Mankind Pharma’s IPO received overwhelming response and the stock made a bumper debut, listing at a premium of more than 23% to its issue price.
Meanwhile, the NSE received all regulatory approvals to delist Nifty50 futures from the Singapore Exchange and list on the NSE IFSC Exchange.
Then, in a surprising move, the Reserve Bank of India announced the decision to withdraw circulation of Rs 2,000 denomination notes by September 30.
On the regulatory front, SEBI cancelled the Certificate of Registration of Karvy Stock Broking after it banned the brokerage from the securities market for misappropriation of clients’ funds.
Then, in a first case of action against a finfluencer, SEBI on May 25, penalised and barred renowned youtuber and options trader PR Sundar from trading for a year over alleged violation of investment advisers norms.
June
Early June, the government launched an offer-for-sale (OFS) in Coal India which received an overwhelming response from the market, helping the promoter sell 3% stake in the world’s largest coal producer.
Then, technology major Wipro announced a share buyback worth Rs 12,000 crore in its move to reward shareholders at a time when the business environment was tough and earnings growth challenging.
The IT major’s share buyback programme ended up giving double-digit returns to retail investors even as the stock was a major underperformer.
On June 12, SEBI restrained Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra Goenka and Zee Entertainment head Punit Goenka from holding any key managerial position, which threw a spanner over the proposed merger deal of Zee with Sony Pictures
Adani promoters raised $1 billion through another round of stake sale in two group companies to GQG Partners.
Among regulatory actions, SEBI and stock exchanges put micro-small cap companies under enhanced surveillance framework.
The regulator introduced tighter disclosure norms for foreign portfolio investors, which will prevent possible circumvention of minimum public shareholding rules or possible misuse of the FPI investment route.
The regulator also approved the proposal for reducing the time period for listing of shares for IPOs to T+3 from T+6 days.
On the global front, Swiss bank UBS Group completed the acquisition of troubled peer lender Credit Suisse in a $3.5 billion deal.
July
On July 1, the mega merger between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and HDFC Bank came into effect,
On July 3, the Nifty 50 futures got listed on NSE IFSC Exchange and was rechristened GIFT Nifty.
On July 8, India’s largest depository National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) filed a draft prospectus with the SEBI for an IPO.
On July 12, HDFC Ltd shares got delisted following the merger with HDFC Bank.
Conglomerate Reliance Industries fixed July 20 as the record date for the demerger of Jio Financial Services. On July 20, Jio Financial was temporarily added into major indices, including Nifty 50 and Sensex.
On July 24, ITC Ltd board approved the demerger of the hotels business, a news that was doing the rounds for several years.
August
On August 14, ITC board approved the demerger of the hotels business into a separate listed subsidiary. Under the demerger plan, shareholders of ITC will get 1 share in the demerged hotels business for every 10 shares held in the parent company.
On August 21, Jio Financial shares got officially listed on the exchanges. In August, India became the first country to enter the moon following Chandrayaan-3’s
successful landing.
On August 28, RIL conducted its annual general meeting with shareholders, wherein Mukesh Ambani said that the conglomerate will create more value for all its stakeholders over the next decade and will be multiple times greater than what it has generated over the past 45 years.
On August 30, BSE announced shifting the expiry of all futures and options contracts of BSE Bankex to Monday from Friday with effect from October 16.
September
On September 2, Uday Kotak stepped down from the post of MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank months ahead of schedule.
On September 6, the NSE shifted the expiry of Nifty Bank options contracts to Wednesday from Thursday.
In the first week of the month, India hosted the G20 Summit, which received an overwhelming response. Engineering major Larsen & Toubro launched its Rs 10,000 crore share buyback on September 18.
AM Naik retired as the Chairman of L&T on September 30 after six decades of service.
October
On October 7, the paramilitary wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine launched unprecedented attacks into the Gaza envelope of neighboring Israeli territory, which dampened sentiment globally.
On October 11, Tata Consultancy Services announced Rs 17,000 crore worth of share buyback scheme at a price of Rs 4,150 per share.
On October 19, Nestle India board approved a 10-for-1 stock split.
The month also saw discount broking firm Zerodha lose its status as India’s largest stock broking firm to another startup Groww.
November
November was a strong month not only for the secondary market but also for the primary market.
On November 7, Honasa Consumer, the owner of Mamaearth brand of personal care products, listed on the bourses, but the stock saw tepid listing gains amid high valuations.
On November 28, leading American investor and philanthropist Charles Munger bid adieu to the world.
Meanwhile, the strong rally in the market saw the BSE’s all stocks market capitalization top $4 trillion for the first time ever on November 29.
On November 30, India witnessed one of the best listing debuts, with the entry of Tata Technologies, as the stock’s value more than doubled on the listing day.
December
With effect from December 1, Sebi reduced the listing timeline for all IPOs to T+2 days, making the process among the fastest in the world.
The stock market welcomed BJP’s victory in 3 Assembly elections with a 2% rally on December 4. In the next few sessions, Nifty also scaled the 21,000 mark for the first time while Sensex went beyond 71,000.
Bulls were emboldened further after the US Fed signalled that 2024 could see three rate cuts.