Sectors: which are trending, and which are leading

8 of 23 are in uptrends and 15 in downtrends on 5 Oct 2026. Leading on momentum: Pharma, MidSmall Healthcare and Media. Lagging: Cement and FMCG. The longest-running trend is Metal's uptrend, since September 2025.

Written for investors comparing sectors, and anyone holding a sector fund. Data to 5 Oct 2026.

Every member, ranked

Ranked by momentum against all 128 markets in the section. The trend score beside it says whether each is rising in its own right; the ring shows where its momentum stood 13 weeks ago. The four squares are the signals at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months: blue when 3 or 4 of the 4 point up, red when 0 or 1 do.

Ranked by momentum Trend score 0 to 100 Momentum rank ring: 13 weeks ago 1, 3, 6, 12 months

1PharmaUptrend since Apr 2026 58 95

2MidSmall HealthcareUptrend since Apr 2026 50 94

3MediaUptrend since Jun 2026 71 88

4Nifty500 HealthcareUptrend since May 2026 50 88

5REITs & RealtyUptrend since Jul 2026 33 85

6MidSmall IT & TelecomUptrend since Jul 2026 42 84

7MetalUptrend since Sep 2025 38 83

8HealthcareUptrend since Apr 2026 46 82

9Private BankDowntrend since Aug 2026 4 70

10MidSmall Financial ServicesDowntrend since Oct 2026 29 64

11BankDowntrend since Jul 2026 4 63

12PSU BankDowntrend since Sep 2026 4 56

13RealtyDowntrend since Oct 2026 33 53

14Consumer DurablesDowntrend since Oct 2026 17 48

15Financial ServicesDowntrend since Mar 2026 4 36

16ChemicalsDowntrend since Sep 2026 13 30

17Financial Services Ex-BankDowntrend since Sep 2026 13 23

18Financial Services 25/50Downtrend since Mar 2026 0 22

19AutoDowntrend since Sep 2026 17 20

20ITDowntrend since Feb 2026 4 15

21Oil & GasDowntrend since Mar 2026 0 14

22FMCGDowntrend since Sep 2025 0 7

23CementDowntrend since Nov 2025 0 2

Table view

Market	Trend	Trend score	Momentum, in family	Momentum, overall	3 months over cash	12 months over cash	Launched
Pharma	Uptrend since Apr 2026	58	1	7	−0.1%	+13.2%	2005-07
MidSmall Healthcare	Uptrend since Apr 2026	50	2	9	−2.2%	+8.7%	2022-08
Media	Uptrend since Jun 2026	71	3	16	+2.9%	−6.7%	2011-07
Nifty500 Healthcare	Uptrend since May 2026	50	4	17	−3.3%	+5.3%	2025-06
REITs & Realty	Uptrend since Jul 2026	33	5	20	−4.3%	−1.3%	2026-03
MidSmall IT & Telecom	Uptrend since Jul 2026	42	6	22	+3.0%	−3.1%	2022-08
Metal	Uptrend since Sep 2025	38	7	23	−2.8%	+18.7%	2011-07
Healthcare	Uptrend since Apr 2026	46	8	24	−4.4%	+4.9%	2020-11
Private Bank	Downtrend since Aug 2026	4	9	40	−6.7%	−5.0%	2016-01
MidSmall Financial Services	Downtrend since Oct 2026	29	10	47	−7.6%	+9.9%	2022-08
Bank	Downtrend since Jul 2026	4	11	49	−7.2%	−5.1%	2003-09
PSU Bank	Downtrend since Sep 2026	4	12	57	−5.1%	+3.4%	2007-08
Realty	Downtrend since Oct 2026	33	13	61	−8.2%	−8.8%	2007-08
Consumer Durables	Downtrend since Oct 2026	17	14	67	−3.4%	−9.6%	2020-01
Financial Services	Downtrend since Mar 2026	4	15	82	−9.6%	−10.2%	2011-09
Chemicals	Downtrend since Sep 2026	13	16	91	−8.3%	−9.1%	2025-03
Financial Services Ex-Bank	Downtrend since Sep 2026	13	17	99	−9.6%	−5.4%	2022-02
Financial Services 25/50	Downtrend since Mar 2026	0	18	101	−10.7%	−10.5%	2020-05
Auto	Downtrend since Sep 2026	17	19	103	−8.0%	−9.1%	2011-07
IT	Downtrend since Feb 2026	4	20	109	+2.7%	−20.8%	–
Oil & Gas	Downtrend since Mar 2026	0	21	111	−7.7%	−10.6%	2020-01
FMCG	Downtrend since Sep 2025	0	22	119	−12.1%	−22.7%	1999-09
Cement	Downtrend since Nov 2025	0	23	126	−12.1%	−25.1%	2026-02

How steady is the path?

Two markets can have the same trend score and very different paths. Efficiency measures how much of the last 63 sessions' travelled distance became net movement. Time above the 200-session average measures persistence; neither is a return forecast.

Market

Nifty Bank: path efficiency and persistence

How to read it. High efficiency means a direct path, which can be upward or downward. Read direction from the trend score above. Missing sessions leave full-window measures blank.

Path efficiencyTime above 200-session average

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Source: NSE total-return indices via Data bank

Method JSON

Start with the main sector benchmarks. Healthcare and pharma both remain visible because they cover different business exposures. Bank ownership splits, smaller-company universes and weighting variants remain available below. The selector retains every available index.

Latest native-session readings. Scaled distance is log distance from the 200-session average divided by daily log-return volatility × √63. A large distance does not establish an imminent reversal. Histories begin at known launch dates.
Market	63-session efficiency	Time above 200-session average	Distance / 63-session volatility	Annualised 63-session volatility
Nifty Bank	15.6%	58.7%	−0.60	12.9%
Nifty Financial Services	21.7%	17.5%	−0.92	13.5%
Nifty IT	5.4%	0.0%	−0.83	23.3%
Nifty Auto	14.1%	82.5%	−0.70	16.1%
Nifty FMCG	25.2%	0.0%	−1.46	14.1%
Nifty Healthcare	8.3%	100.0%	0.62	12.3%
Nifty Pharma	3.1%	100.0%	1.32	12.2%
Nifty Metal	2.5%	100.0%	0.15	18.4%
Nifty Oil & Gas	20.2%	0.0%	−1.39	11.0%
Nifty Realty	9.2%	96.8%	0.16	24.7%
Nifty Consumer Durables	4.6%	95.2%	−0.22	14.5%
Nifty Media	6.1%	100.0%	0.63	22.0%
Nifty Cement	20.7%	1.6%	−1.25	17.2%
Nifty Chemicals	14.7%	92.1%	−0.30	16.5%

Compare 9 more indices

Sector subsets and construction variants. Different definitions are retained for detailed comparison; placement here is an editorial choice, not a return-based selection.
Market	63-session efficiency	Time above 200-session average	Distance / 63-session volatility	Annualised 63-session volatility
Nifty Financial Services 25/50	24.6%	19.0%	−1.11	13.1%
Nifty Financial Services Ex-Bank	16.0%	84.1%	−0.61	18.7%
Nifty MidSmall Financial Services	12.6%	92.1%	−0.19	17.5%
Nifty MidSmall Healthcare	2.2%	100.0%	1.12	12.9%
Nifty MidSmall IT & Telecom	7.7%	88.9%	0.42	16.9%
Nifty PSU Bank	7.0%	36.5%	−0.70	18.6%
Nifty Private Bank	14.0%	44.4%	−0.33	14.0%
Nifty REITs & Realty	8.3%	100.0%	0.39	11.8%
Nifty500 Healthcare	5.6%	100.0%	0.92	11.9%

How broad

The share of the family in an uptrend, week by week. Each member counts only from its launch date, so NSE's back-calculated histories do not fill the early years.

Family	1 month	3 months	6 months	12 months
Sectors23 markets	4% up96% down	0% up96% down	35% up48% down	30% up57% down

Sectors: share in an uptrend, week by week

Weekly, from 2007, when the family first had five members counted; the 13-week average in bold.

How to read it. Today 35% of the family is in an uptrend. Long stretches near the top or bottom are the family moving as one; time spent in the middle means its members are going separate ways.

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Source: NSE total-return indices (niftyindices); World Gold Council (gold in rupees); NSE 5-year G-sec index; ECB reference rates (the rupee, and overseas indices in rupees); overseas index closes as in docs/methods/world.md.

Method JSON

Regime history

Every member's uptrends (blue) and downtrends (red) since its history begins, sorted with today's uptrends first, longest-running at the top. 22 of 23 are back-calculated by NSE before their launch: that part is drawn lighter, with a dark tick at the launch. One has no usable launch date in NSE's factsheets and is drawn as published.

Sectors: regimes since 1996

Weekly readings. Blank: before the first trend was established.

How to read it. Read across a row for one market's story; read down for one moment across the family. Long single-colour columns are markets moving together; a patchwork is a family going separate ways.

UptrendDowntrendBefore launch (back-calculated)

Metal

MidSmall Healthcare

Healthcare

Pharma

Nifty500 Healthcare

Media

REITs & Realty

MidSmall IT & Telecom

FMCG

Cement

Financial Services 25/50

Financial Services

Oil & Gas

Bank

Private Bank

PSU Bank

Auto

Chemicals

Financial Services Ex-Bank

Consumer Durables

MidSmall Financial Services

Realty

Is leadership rotating?

Of the 5 members with the strongest momentum 26 weeks ago, 0 are still among the top 5 today. Leadership has turned over completely. In the ranked list above, a long line from ring to dot is a market whose momentum has moved a long way in 13 weeks.

Then: Metal, MidSmall Financial Services, PSU Bank, Financial Services Ex-Bank, Auto. Now: Pharma, MidSmall Healthcare, Media, Nifty500 Healthcare, REITs & Realty.

How to read this

Several sector indices overlap: banks sit in Bank, Private Bank, PSU Bank and both Financial Services indices; pharma companies in Pharma and the three Healthcare indices. Neighbouring ranks among them are not independent views.

Most of NSE's sector indices have histories from 2004 or 2005 though they were launched years later; Cement and Chemicals were launched in 2025–26. A sector's history before its launch is NSE's back-calculation.

Trend asks whether a market is rising; momentum asks whether it is rising faster than the others. Both look back over the same horizons: 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. Every market is measured on its return above a liquid fund (the 91-day T-bill), so an index that only keeps pace with cash is not trending.

The trend score is the share of 24 signals that point up: four ways of asking whether a price is trending (above where it was, above its average, a short average above a long one, in the top half of its range), each at six horizons from one month to a year. 100 means all agree it is rising; 0 that all agree it is falling.

Uptrend and downtrend. Read once a week, a market enters an uptrend when its score reaches 70 (17 of 24 signals up) and stays in it until the score falls to 30 or below, when it enters a downtrend. "Uptrend since March 2026" means the score first reached 70 in March and has not fallen to 30 since. The gap between the two lines keeps a market from flipping every other week.

Describing is not forecasting. In our pre-registered tests no trend or momentum rule on indices beat buying and holding by more than luck would explain, and after tax every rule trailed on the large-cap indices. What the rules did reliably was cut the worst falls. What the tests found. Many indices are back-calculated by NSE before their launch; their pages say so and draw that history lighter.

The workings

Method

How trend, momentum and regimes are measured

Data

Every chart has a table view, a CSV download and a link to its published JSON. Bundles are listed in data status.