Know Your Sector

Sector analysis is the study of a group of companies that share the same customers, input costs, regulator and business cycle — banks, cement makers, IT services firms — rather than studying one company in isolation. Because those companies face the same forces, a large share of any single stock's move comes from what is happening to its whole sector. Sector analysis tells you what that shared backdrop is doing before you form a view on an individual name.

There is no single fixed number, because it depends on the classification you use. NSE publishes a set of sectoral indices covering broad industries such as banking, IT, pharma, auto, FMCG, metals and realty, plus thematic indices that cut across industries. Index constituents and definitions are reviewed periodically, so check the current index factsheet on the NSE website rather than relying on a memorised list.

A sectoral index holds companies from one industry — every constituent does broadly the same thing. A thematic index holds companies exposed to one idea, and those companies can sit in completely different industries. Using a thematic index as a proxy for an industry's health is a common error, because its constituents do not share a single cost structure or cycle.

It depends on how the sector earns money. Price-to-earnings breaks down for cyclical businesses because the earnings denominator swings violently, and for lenders because leverage is the business rather than a distortion to remove. Lenders are usually read on price-to-book, capital-intensive businesses on EV/EBITDA, and commodity producers against replacement cost or per-tonne profitability. The sector valuation topic in this module covers which multiple fits which business and the trap in each.

No. This is educational content published by a SEBI Registered Research Analyst, and it explains how each sector works — the revenue drivers, the cost structure, the metrics that matter and the policy levers. Companies are named to illustrate business models, not as buy or sell suggestions. Nothing here is a recommendation, a target price or advice on what to hold.