Suzlon Energy, YES Bank, Tata Power, NTPC, IRFC, JFS: How top retail favourite stocks fared in recent selloff

Just one out of top 10 retail favourite stocks in the BSE500 pack managed to deliver positive return in 2025 so far, with only three managing to beat the benchmark. They are Reliance Industries Ltd, NTPC Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd.
Retail favourites, where the number of individuals with up to Rs 2 lakh shares are among highest, such as Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFS), Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd (IRFC), Suzlon Energy Ltd, Tata Power Company Ltd and YES Bank Ltd were the worst hit, falling 10-26 per cent year-to-date.

Reliance Industries delivered 0.78 per cent return in 2025 against a 7.6 per cent drop in the BSE500 index. Tata Steel and NTPC outperformed the index this year with falls of 2.6 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively.

Jio Financial shares dropped 26 per cent in 2025 so far. JM Financial expect the stock could be included in Nifty in the March rejig. The announcement for the Nifty constituent changes is due on February 21, post market hours.

Railway IRFC slipped into the bear territory with a 20 per cent drop. Suzlon Energy tumbled 18.64 per cent, followed by Tata Power (13.44 per cent) and YES Bank 10.91 per cent. NHPC and Tata Motors declined 9.55 per cent and7.97 per cent, respectively.

As far as the BSE500 (excluding-OMCs) Q3 earnings were concerned, growth remained weak at 8 per cent YoY with most sectors, barring BFSI, posting a sharp slowdown. This is because input price tailwinds have faded while top line remains weak, Nuvama said in a note.

Kotak Institutional Equities in a recent note said that the price-agnostic investment behavior of retail investors and their continued purchases, directly and indirectly, resulted in market overvaluation in the past 9-12 months. That, prevented a larger and swifter correction in the stock market.

The brokerage felt that the market is on thin ice based on the usual trailing-returns argument for investment by retail investors. “A 12-month trailing returns have turned weak while three-month and six-month returns are now negative. Taxes and trading costs would only further dent the returns of investors, it warned.

That said, the earnings downgrade cycle appears to be concluding for largecap index Nifty, with consensus estimates for FY26 already adjusting downward by 3.9 per cent since January 2025, Emkay Global said in another note. This brokerage remains constructive on mid-teens earnings growth for FY26, driven by Financials, metals, and energy.