ARE THE GOOD TIMES BACK? EXPERTS SAY THE STOCK MARKET SEEMS TO HAVE BOTTOMED OUT.

PREDICTING THE STOCK market's exact bottom or top is tough in today's dynamic world, where any blowout at any point of time can quickly alter sentiment and trends.

- CHITRANJAN KUMAR

Indian equities notched a record rally in March after five straight months of losses—the longest losing streak in 29 years—even as investors grappled with rising geopolitical uncertainty, escalating trade tensions, and growing stagflation concerns.

The domestic equity benchmark indices, the Sensex and the Nifty50, posted their highest monthly gains among the world's 10 largest equity markets in March, aided by improved valuations, a dovish U.S. Federal Reserve, recovery in the rupee, and value buying in beaten-down midand small-cap stocks.

The 30-share Sensex rallied over 4,400 points, or 6%, month-to-date (MTD) to close at 77,606 as of March 27, 2025, with its total market cap growing by ₹31 lakh crore to ₹415.55 lakh crore. In a similar trend, the Nifty50 bounced back 1,467 points, or 6.6%, to settle at 23,592 on the last day of March futures and options (F&O) series expiry.

Outperforming the benchmark indices, midand small-cap stocks witnessed a strong rally in March, with the Nifty Midcap 150 and the Nifty Smallcap 250 indices surging 8% and 10%, respectively.

The recent rally is fuelled by a combination of fundamentals and sentiment, says Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities. “We can only speculate on the reasons for this odd rally—a few investors found value in BFSI stocks, some may have rediscovered value in 'narrative' stocks, others may have taken solace from reducing FPI selling in the past month and inflows in the past week,” he says.