April emerged as one of the strongest months for Indian equities in recent years, bouncing off a sharp sell-off that deepened the slide underway since late-September 2024.

The Nifty posted its best monthly gains since December 2023, the Midcap 150 since November 2020 and the Nifty Smallcap 250 since its inception in April 2016.

Some of the sector measures, such as defence, capital markets and realty outshone the main and the broad market indices during the month, according to ETIG data. The rebound has helped some of them return to the green, while cutting losses for some others for 2026.

Banks, India’s largest sector by market capitalisation, too bounced back, though not as sharply as the smaller ones, while gains in the other heavyweight, information technology, were modest.