Mumbai, Mar 4 (IANS): As the Indian stock market has largely been on bull run amid the pandemic, around half of the Nifty stocks are trading at a premium to their historical averages.

The companies trading at a significant premium to their historical averages include HCL Technologies (higher by 63 per cent), Reliance Industries (51 per cent), TCS (45 per cent), Divi's Laboratories (44 per cent), and Titan (36 per cent), showed tht 'Bulls & Bears' report by Motilal Oswal Financial Service.

On the other hand, Coal India (lower by 51 per cent), NTPC (47 per cent), ONGC (38 per cent), ITC (38 per cent), and IOCL (33 per cent) are the companies trading at significant discount to their historical averages.

The report noted that the midcaps outperformed the large caps in February 2021.

Last month, Nifty Midcap 100 was up 11.3 per cent against a rise of 6.6 per cent month-on-month (MoM) for the Nifty.

The best midcap performers in February 2021 were Tata Chemicals (55 per cent), Gujarat Gas (34 per cent), SAIL (33 per cent), BHEL (32 per cent), and M&M Financials (32 per cent).

It said that consumer, healthcare, and technology underperformed in February.

As per the report, at 39.7x price-to-earning (P/E) ratio in February 2021, the consumer sector is trading at a premium of 7.7 per cent to its 10-year average. On a profit-to-book (P/B) ratio basis, it trades (at 9.2x) at a discount to its 10-year average multiple of 10x.

"A sharp economic recovery post COVID-led disruption, buoyant consumer sentiment, and upbeat festive demand resulted in most consumer companies delivering a strong 3QFY21. Rural demand remains strong, while urban demand has seen a resurgence," it said.

There has been sharp re-rating in the healthcare sector during Apr-Dec'20. The sector was trading at a 35 per cent discount to its 10-year average in April 2020. The re-rating was to such an extent that it traded at a 7 per cent premium to its 10-year average in December 2020. Since then, there has been a pause in the re-rating with the premium reducing to almost zero now, it added.

The technology sector is trading at a P/E of 22.1x, a 29 per cent premium to its historical average of 17.2x. Despite being a seasonally weak quarter (on account of furloughs), Indian IT companies reported one of its strongest quarters, delivering 4.9 per cent QoQ growth (USD).

"This was due to increased Technology spends across all key industries, pick up in deal sizes, and faster conversion from pipeline to orders. The outlook for CY21 continues to improve, with an increase in deal TCV (median book-to-bill at 1.2x v/s 0.9x in 3QFY20) and pipeline across companies."