In India, these sectors doubled shareholder wealth in last 4 yrs

Stock investing is all about identifying and adopting a goal and sticking to it with discipline. The goal could be anything from earning x% returns to holding the stock for your period. The important thing is to identify what works best and stick to it without compromise. But an important question that any investor would have in mind is which investment philosophy works best?

An article carried by Business Standard appears to be addressing this question. It has identified 8 sectors where investors have been able to double their money. But investors have been able to do so only by holding on to the stocks over a period of 4 years. The sectors include tobacco, FMCG, tyres, auto, pharma, auto ancillaries, banks and fertilizers. These sectors have seena robust financial performance even during the not so good times. And this performance has translated to healthy gains for investors who remained committed to them.

The driving force behind the performance of these sectors was healthy domestic consumption. With rising income levels particularly in the rural sector, consumption has been growing in recent times. As a result, these sectors have seen their top lines outperform the overall economic growth. At the same time the ability to pass on increases in costs, keeping their administrative costs under control and maintaining their brands has helped these companies in growing their bottom lines as well.

On the other hand the "in the news" sectors like infrastructure, construction, sugar, etc have actually doled out negative returns for the investors during the same period. Though they have seen a growth on the financial front, but neither has the performance been outstanding. Nor have they helped investors in any way. With compounded annual returns ranging between -1% to -33% over the past 4 years, these sectors have actually destroyed shareholder wealth.

This leads to one key learning for investors. Something we always keep talking about. That is that in order to earn healthy returns over long term, it is essential to identify businesses with strong fundamentals. And having identified these it is necessary to hold on to them for a long time period. Investing in hot news items rather than the stronger business fundamentals can only lead to one thing. And that is losses.