Banking sector stocks had been out of the limelight for a while. It even seemed as if they were not delivering. But the fact is they were outperformers in the bear market of October-December 2024. This has to be seen in light of the fact that banks, as a set of stocks, are highly owned by FIIs – the big sellers of the bearish phase. Despite that, except in one or two cases where they were hit by a wave of selling, banks did better than the broader market. The reason is simple: While credit growth has been muted, on one parameter, which is NPA, they are far better placed today than they have been in the past.
