These nine large-cap stocks defied Monday market meltdown

Indian stocks began the new week on a grim note with benchmark indices slumping more than 2.6% as investors fretted over high inflation in the US and India that is prompting central bankers to tighten monetary policies.

India’s consumer price inflation data for May, which came in after trading stopped for the day, showed price pressured eased a tad but remained above the Reserve Bank of India’s target levels. Retail inflation for May slowed to 7.04% from 7.79% in the previous month.

Inflation for May in the US hit a 40-year high of 8.6% while US treasury yields touched 3.19%, worrying investors that the US Federal Reserve will increase interest rates more aggressively later this week.

The BSE Sensex fell more than 1,600 points, or 3%, in intraday trading before recovering a tad to close at 52,846.70. The NSE Nifty ended 2.64% down at 15,774.40. Every sectoral index fell on Monday, with finance, IT, and the Bankex among the biggest losers.

While the broader indices continued their downward slide, carrying on from the last week, there were nine notable exceptions among the BSE 100 large cap counters that bucked the trend, and rose.

The BSE 100 stock that gained the most was Adani Green Energy Ltd, which closed more than 2.5% over Friday’s close, to end the day at Rs 1,800 per share.

In fact, in early trade on Monday, Adani Green was up more than 3%, before coming down a bit. It still managed to end the day well into the green.

Giving Adani Green company was another Adani Group firm, Adani Transmission, which ended the day 0.75% in the green.

But it wasn’t just billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies that were in the green on a day when the market was mostly a sea of red.

FMCG company Marico and adhesives manufacturer Pidilite Industries were in the money by more than 1%.

Other top gainers from the BSE 100 pack were ICICI Lombard (0.49%), Siemens (0.47%), Nestle (0.46%), PI Industries (0.17%) and Bajaj Auto, which was only marginally in the green.