Going ahead, the market's direction will be dependent on the quarterly earnings that kick off next week. Investors will pick cues from the earning reports of companies and related economic data, as they assess the continuity or any possible disruption in the trends and themes that played out in FY2023-24, making it a highly rewarding year.

The Secretariat seeks to capture the trends and outcomes that market the Indian stock market's journey through FY2023-24.

Nifty 50 A Top Performer

With a year-on-year growth of 28.6 per cent, the 50-share benchmark index of the National Stock Exchange -- Nifty 50 - finished FY2023-24 as the third best perfomer after Tokyo's Nikkei and the Nasdaq Composite. It fared a tad better that S&P 500, used the measure the performance of the 500 top American stocks, which grew 27.9 per cent.

The laggards included mostly Asian bourses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index contracted 18.9 per cent, Shanghai's Composite index fell 7.1 per cent and Singapore's benchmark Strait Times index registered a marginal slide of  1.1 per cent.

Auto Stocks See Sharp Turnaround; Banking, FMCG And IT Disappoint

The automobile sector led the rally with a 75 per cent year-on-year growth, followed by realty, power and infrastructure. Oil and gas, pharma and healthcare and metals and mining also posted impressive growth. 

Banking and financial services, which account for a third of Nifty's value, grew at a moderate pace of 16 per cent, while information technology stocks, with second highest weight in the NIfty, rose at slightly faster, but disappointing pace, of 21 per cent. FMCG stocks also saw subdued growth, reflecting a state of depressed consumption demand, especially in rural areas.  

Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports Lead The Pack Of Winners

While there was a sharp turnaround in stocks across the automobile sector, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto stood out with their shares more than doubling in value through the year. Adani Ports came in third among NIfty 50 stocks, recovering from the Hindenberg hit. 

Among PSU stocks, which have been on a roll in recent times, stocks Coal India and NTPC led the pack, almost doubling in value.

Once the street's favourites, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Bank shares contracted, 10.7 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively. Other laggards included Infosys, LTI Mindtree, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Asian Paints.

Double Engine Growth:

The impressive rally of FY2023-24 was driven both by healthy inflows from foreign portfolio investors and domestic mutual funds. The latter was aided by a sustained growth in retail investors. 

FPI inflows, which had dropped sharply in the pandemic year of 2021-22, bounced back in the following two years, surpassing investment by domestic mutual funds in 2023-24. Mutual funds, which had seen a sharp uptick in 2021-22 that helped offset the drop in FPI inflows that year, have held on, thanks to the continued interest of the retail investors.

Companies Rush With IPOs

The sustained rally in the stock market encouraged companies to rush with Intial Public Offering of their shares. Through FY2023-24, As many as 76 companies, twice the number in the previous year, listed their shares.

Notable among the companies that got listed on the bourses were Tata Technologies, IREDA (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency), Mankind Pharma, JSW Infrastructure and Muthoot Fincorp.