Over the last five years, Indian equities have delivered one of the strongest wealth creation phases in history. Top 100 companies alone have added about ₹148 Lakh Crore in market cap between 2020 and 2025 – an extraordinary backdrop for any long term investor. Yet, even in this kind of powerful bull market, a small set of stocks 24 stocks out of top 500 companies still managed to destroy approximately ₹66,600 crore of shareholder.
As an investment advisor working closely with HNI families, this contrast is exactly what needs to be front and center in portfolio conversations. Out of the top 500 companies, only 24 actually destroyed wealth over these five years, and just the top 10 names account for nearly 82% of the total erosion. In other words, your long term outcomes are driven at least as much by the few big mistakes you avoid as by the winners you participate in.
Consider the top 5 wealth destroyers over 2020–2025:
- Rajesh Exports – around ₹10,500 crore of wealth destroyed, with a negative 5 year CAGR of about 19%.
- Whirlpool of India – roughly ₹10,000 crore erased, translating into an 11% negative CAGR over five years.
- Bandhan Bank – close to ₹8,400 crore of erosion, with about 6% negative CAGR driven by asset quality and regulatory concerns.
- Vodafone Idea – around ₹7,100 crore lost as leverage and AGR overhang kept equity returns deeply negative.
- Dhani Services – about ₹4,400 crore destroyed, with a negative CAGR of nearly 12% as the business model kept shifting without delivering steady profitability.
For HNI investors, there are three clear implications that guide how portfolios are managed:
- The headline index can look strong while a few individual stocks quietly inflict permanent capital loss. The role of a disciplined advisory process is to minimise exposure to such structural laggards.
- Many of these blow ups were not surprises on the numbers alone; the early sig nals often lay in governance standards, capital allocation choices, regulatory risk and business durability, all of which are consciously evaluated before a stock enters your portfolio.
- In a market that has created ₹148 Lakh Crore of wealth, chasing every exciting story is optional but protecting capital is non negotiable. Robust filters, position sizing and a clear “no” on weak risk reward setups are where real compounding is protected.
