That2022 has been an eventful year for Gola stock investors. The war in Ukraine, high inflation, volatile commodity and currency exchange rates, continued interest rate hikes by central banks, and China’s tight covid restrictions have taken hold in global stock markets in various stages.
In this year’s setbacks, at least $14 trillion ($14 trillion) in value is estimated to have been lost in global equities. This will make 2022 the second worst year on record. Market volatility was also high, with over 300 interest rate hikes by various central banks and 3 rallies of more than 10% on the back of inflation. Meanwhile, the performance of major stock markets for the year 2022 is explained below.
India
The Indian equity market has shown a strong performance globally, despite facing severe volatility throughout the year. NSE’s Nifty benchmark and BSE’s flagship Sensex have posted gains of around 5% so far this year. The major indices fell to a one-year low in June after a sharp setback. But the indices soared more than 25% in the following six months and rewrote all-time highs by the end of November. This year the Sensex recorded a low of 50,921 and a high of 63,583.
Meanwhile, 2022 has seen 14 rallies in the Sensex index that have gained more than 1000 points. The Sensex’s best daily gain this year was a 1,736-point increase on Feb. 25. Similarly, the index’s heaviest daily loss was a 2,702-point drop on February 24, when war broke out in Ukraine. Meanwhile, IT and pharmaceuticals stocks, which had shined during the Covid pandemic, suffered a setback in 2022. But sector indices for energy, utilities, capital goods and energy rose 20 to 30 %. Shares of PSU and Adani Group gave investors golden gains, while shares of new generation companies like Paytm gave heavy losses.
WE
2022 has been a challenging year for investors in the US, the world’s largest stock market, with high inflation, tighter monetary policies from the Federal Reserve, interest rate hikes and subsequent fears of a recession. The benchmark S&P 500, followed closely by global investors, has lost nearly 20% this year. This is the worst performance the index has recorded since 2008 when the US financial crisis hit. The S&P-500’s closing low was 3,577 in October. The index is now just above 6%. Similarly, the S&P-500’s high for the year was 4,796 on Jan. 3.
The stock market in China, the world’s second-largest economy, was also reflected in the economic slowdown due to tighter Covid-19 restrictions and factory closures. The easing of Covid restrictions in late November helped mitigate the impact of this year’s losses, as the indices rallied somewhat. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s Hang Seng Index has lost 17% so far this year. Similarly, the benchmark indexes of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, which comprise the main listed companies in China, are expected to decline by 12% and 18% respectively in 2022.
Europe
The energy crisis, inflation and interest rates raised by central banks following the war in Ukraine sent stock markets in the European region onto a volatile path in 2022. The main European stock indexes, the DAX (Germany), lost 11%, the CAC-40 (France) 8% and the FTSE-100 (UK) 1% each over the period to 2022.
