A tale of diminishing returns

Stock market ups and downs are common. Just because a stock did well in the past doesn't mean it will in the future, and the opposite is true too. Underperformance in stocks can be due to various reasons like changes in the business environment, increased competition, high valuations, market sentiments, inconsistent performance over time and more. Further, two people investing in the same company may get different returns depending on when they invested. This got us curious, so we looked at companies that had big share price growth in the past decade but are not doing so well now. We applied the following filters: Trading history of at least 10 years Market cap above Rs 1,000 crore Ten-year annual share price return exceeding 20 per cent Five-year and three-year annual share price returns below 10 per cent We found 19 such companies in India and focused on the top seven by market cap, each having its reasons for decline. Indraprastha Gas Once a consistently performing PSU, Indraprastha Gas has fallen from grace. Despite growing profits, it has faced challenges, particularly in recent years. High gas prices