Bank and power stocks drive BSE PSU index

Index hits 52-week high, outperforms benchmarks

- DEEPAK KORGAONKAR

Shares of state-owned companies were in demand on Wednesday, with the BSE PSU index hitting a fresh 52-week high of 22,583.56 during trade.

The index, which measures the performance of public-sector undertakings (PSUs), has been among the top-performing sectoral indices and has also outperformed the benchmarks over the one-month and three-month periods. While the BSE PSU index is up 8 per cent, the Sensex has gained 0.5 percent over the past month.

State-owned banks, refineries, and power generation companies have seen a sharp run over the past month. Among individual stocks, Engineers India, Shipping Corporation of India, and HMT rallied 30-33 per cent, while Power Grid Corporation of India, Power Finance Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, and NTPC surged 15-23 per cent during the same period.

Separately, the BSE PSU Bank index has recently scaled a fresh all-time high, driven by strength in largecap public-sector bank (PSB) stocks. “Importantly, the momentum is now broadening, with several midcap PSBs delivering decade-long breakouts, signalling structural participation beyond the frontline names,” technical analysts at ICICI Securities said.