The Nifty 50 was down 5% for the month as of Friday’s close. The last time the index fell 5% in December was in 1994 when it fell 5.1%. After 1994, markets are generally cushioned by the proverbial year-end Santa rally.

This time, however, the index has corrected more than 1,000 points from its all-time high of 18,888 on December 1. Since then, heavy profit-taking, selling by foreign investors and the resurgence of the threat of Covid-19 have dragged the index lower from its highs.

Since 1994, the Nifty 50 has only fallen by more than 1% twice, in 2011 and 2014, when it fell by 4.3% and 3.6%, respectively.

So far in December, Divi’s Laboratories and Axis Bank are the only two constituents that have managed to gain ground this month. The other 48 constituents posted losses, with 10 poorer performers down 8-10%.

Most of Divi’s 2.7% gain in December came during Thursday and Friday trading sessions.

VK Vijayakumar of Geojit Financial Services expects FPIs to be cautious soon. He said that macro data and Covid-related headlines from the US would drive FPI inflows. According to NSDL data, FPIs had net buyers of Rs 7,278 crore as of December 24. However, netting out the buy-in figure of Rs 8,977 crore on December 1 (mainly due to mega-deals), FPI investments are negative at Rs 1,699 crore.