The first few months of 2023 have been anything but positive as the Nifty 500 fell by nearly 8% in the past 90 days. This week, we take a look at the outperforming and underperforming sectors over the past quarter and their best and worst-performing companies. 

Sectors like food, beverages & tobacco, healthcare equipment and consumer durables have surpassed the Nifty 500, despite a weak quarter for markets. These are defensive sectors which remain stable regardless of the economy, as consumer spending here stays steady. The general industrials sector returned 2.9% in this period, backed by the capex push of the central government. 

The outperforming screener shows stocks from the top-performing sectors. These are high-growth stocks which outperformed Nifty 500 by over 20% in the past year and by over 10% in the past quarter. Notable stocks in the screener are ITC, Siemens, Varun Beverages, Polycab India and KEI Industries. 

Sectors like commercial services, utilities, media and retailing were underperformers and fell by over 15% in the past quarter. The utilities sector was dragged down by Adani group stocks, which plunged after Hindenburg’s explosive report on the group’s corporate governance issues. 

The underperforming screener has stocks from the worst-performing sectors. Companies in this screener are Adani Total Gas and Adani Transmission, which underperformed Nifty 500 by over 50 percentage points. It also includes players like Aditya Birla Fashion, Concor and Sun TV Network.

You can find some popular screeners here.