Airtel leads as Indian stock market creates Rs 148 lakh crore wealth in five years: Motilal Oswal study

The top 100 wealth creators achieved a five-year CAGR of 38%, far above Sensex’s 21% CAGR. Motilal Oswal said this period marks the fastest phase of wealth creation in the thirty-year history of the survey.

Airtel and ICICI Bank emerge as the biggest gainers

Bharti Airtel tops the list as the largest wealth creator, adding Rs 7.9 lakh crore in market value over five years. ICICI Bank followed closely with Rs 7.4 lakh crore, driven by a strong balance sheet, sustained earnings growth and steady market share gains in the retail and corporate banking sectors.Consumer-focused, financial services, defense and PSU stocks make up a large part of the top 100 list, reflecting a broader rally beyond the traditional leaders.

BSE will be the fastest wealth creator

The BSE itself emerged as the fastest wealth creator, with a total return of a whopping 124% CAGR during 2020-2025. To illustrate the scale. Rs 1 crore invested equally in the top 10 fastest wealth creators in 2020 would now be worth Rs 24 crore. That translates to a CAGR of 88%, compared to just 24% for the Nifty Total Return Index.

BSE’s strong operating leverage, rising cash volumes and rapid shift of SME listings to its platform helped lift valuations sharply.

HAL tops consistency and overall performance

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has emerged as the star of the survey in two categories. In the most consistent wealth creator, HAL has outperformed the Nifty TRI in the last five years. Meanwhile, the ranking in Best All-Around Power Creator combines performance in the largest, fastest and most consistent categories. HAL’s overall CAGR return of 75% sealed its position as India’s best all-round performer.

The defense PSU has seen a revaluation cycle due to record order book, rising exports, government push for indigenization and steady expansion in margins.

The research shows that 2020-2025 has been unique. A period of extreme volatility, followed by a strong structural rally led by domestic investors, strong corporate earnings and shifts in the global supply chain in India’s favor.Motilal Oswal said continued domestic flows, the financialization of household savings and the rise of new-age sectors indicate that wealth creation could remain broad-based. But they also pointed out that valuations in many segments now look stretched.

Also read: Nifty struggles to maintain its peak. 5 reasons why this is a worrying sign for investors

Motilal Oswal expects India’s GDP to quadruple again to $16 trillion over the next seventeen years, after quadrupling from $1 trillion to $4 trillion in the past seventeen years.

This is a multi-trillion dollar (MTD) opportunity, as the report states, for many companies to explode, especially in the financial sector (including capital markets) and consumer discretionary sectors such as automotive, consumer durables, healthcare, etc.