Covid-19 to policy tightening: Events that shaped equity markets in 2021

 The year 2021 was all about fighting the pandemic, staging an economic recovery, and maintaining your finances well. Let's recap all that shaped the markets this year and the lessons for 2022

Covid-19, inflationary concerns, policy tightening, and IPOs -- these words can largely sum up the roller coaster year that 2021 was for equity markets.
Despite a brief period of slowdown in the economic activity, owing to partial lockdown in the early part of the year, equity markets staged an empyreal rally in 2021.
The Sensex hit a record high of 62,245 on October 19 while the Nifty 50 index claimed a lifetime high of 18,604.
The market cap of all listed companies grew about $1 trillion during the year to as much as $3.56 trillion, with India almost breaking into the elite top-five club in terms of market cap.
That apart, the slowdown in China, chip shortages, crude oil price rise, commodity inflation, and global central banks turning hawkish were some of the global factors that shaped the markets this year, he says.
This blink-and-miss rally was largely supported by MFs and retail investors.
As per data compiled by HDFC Securities, India had about 77 million Demat accounts at the end of November this year, while SIP accounts at the end of the previous month were 48 million.
There were about 29 million active broking clients and about 117 million mutual fund folios.
Total equity mutual fund assets under management stood at Rs 1,320 billion.
Ajit Mishra, VP-Research at Religare Broking attributes this stunning participation inequity to the lack of other investment avenues.
And not just secondary market, retail and FPI activity was remarkable in the primary market this year.