Rising or declining fortunes are part and parcel of stock market. August saw a

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turnaround of realty sector stocks while pharma and infrastructure stocks took a bit of beating.

FC analysed returns given by seven sectoral indices — CNX Realty, CNX Infrastructure, CNX Pharma, CNX Public Sector Enterprises, CNX Bank, CNX IT and CNX FMCG — in one month, three months, one-year and two-year periods.

Average values of these indices, along with benchmark broader market index S&P CNX Nifty, in August were compared with their respective monthly averages in July, May, August last year and August 2008.

CNX Realty index, which has seen worst sectoral performance over a one-year period and two-year period with negative returns of 7 per cent and 31.5 per cent, respectively, started showing revival signs in the last one month and last three months with 6 per cent and 17 per cent returns, respectively.

“Realty stocks are trying to catch up with the market now. But the sector will remain under pressure as investors still have concerns about leverage levels. Realty stocks are high beta stocks. So only an investor with a higher risk appetite should consider investing in them at this point of time,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at SMC Capitals.

A small slide had begun in pharma and infrastructure sectors. The CNX Pharma index showed a sharp rise of 44.93 per cent in the one-year period, but has dipped 2.18 per cent in the last one month and 1.36 per cent in last two months.

“Pharma is a very wide sector. It is not like a commodity business where prospects of all companies are similar. Companies differ as they cater to select segments of the market,” said Avinash Gupta, assistant vice-president at Bonanza Portfolio.

Infrastructure stocks had begun to revive in June and July, but could not continue the momentum in August. In one- and two-year periods, CNX Infrastructure index lost 4.7 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively.

But the index showed a healthy 6.5 per cent gain from May to August, although it has stayed flat from July to August. Sarbjit Kour Nangra, research analyst at Angel broking said, “We are positive on the infrastruture sector due to robust order book of the companies.”

Only two sectoral indices, CNX FMCG and CNX Bank, have been consistently outperforming Nifty in all the four time periods analysed. But it remains to be seen it the law of averages catches up with these sectors over the next few months?