Big stock movers of past year have brought fat returns Movers and shakers
Day trading draws significant interest from investors, despite many experiencing losses.
Mint analyzed Nifty 100 companies to find the stocks with the highest intraday movement over the past 12 months up to April. The top stock, Indian Railway Finance Corp (IRFC), showed an average daily movement of 4.7% during this period.
Toputthisinperspective,ifan investorhadinvested₹10lakhat IRFC’slowestpriceeachdayand soldatthehighestprice(orshortsold at the highest price and bought back at the lowest), he could have made ₹ 1.17 crore in a year. Even capturing 20% of these gains would yield an annual return of over 200%.
Intraday movement is calculated as the difference between the daily high and low prices, divided by the low price. The
Within Nifty 100, stocks that have seen sharp intra-day movements over the past year have fetched higher returns
4.7% 4.2% 4.1% 3.8% 3.8% annual average is the simple average of these daily movements over the period. This differs from volatility, which involves more complex calculations.
After IRFC, shares of Adani Power and Adani Energy Solutions had the most significant movements, at 4.2% and 4.1%, respectively. Adani firms dominated the list, with three of them being in top
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394 five and five in top ten companies. These stocks often moved more than 10%, with peaks up to 23% on some days.
For instance, IRFCmovements exceeded10%in21 sessions during theyear,whileAdaniEnterprises did so in 20 sessions. In total, 62 sessions, or nearly one in four, had at least one stock moving over 10%, offering substantial opportunities for risk-takers.
1.6% 1.6% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4%
Interestingly, companies in the energy sector, including renewables, and NBFCs, made up seven of the ten stocks with the highest intraday movements. This marks a significant shift from earlier boom periods when real estate companies showed the greatest volatility.
On the other hand, FMCG firms and banks accounted for six of the ten stocks with the lowest intraday movements.
The data also indicates that stocks with sharper intraday movements tend to yield better returns, supporting the theory that higher-risk stocks generate higher absolute returns.
Except for Adani Energy, the top four stocks generated oneyear returns of 89% to 394%. At the other end of the spectrum were HUL, HDFC Bank, RIL, ICICI Bank, and TCS, which showed average daily movements of less than 1.6%.
These five stocks also generated relatively low absolute returns. HDFC Bank and HUL shares each fell by nearly 10% over the past year. On the other hand, shares of TCS, ICICI Bank and RIL gained 19%, 26% and 33%, respectively.
To be sure, while this analysis identifies stocks with significant intradaymovements,it'simportant to note that past performance may not predict future results.Additionally,capitalizing on intraday volatility requires a disciplinedapproachtomitigate losses if caught in a wrong trade.