The Six Nifty 50 Stocks With Negative Five-Year CAGR: TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HDFC Life insurance, HUL & Asian Paints

For most Indian investors, the Nifty 50 is shorthand for steady, dependable wealth creation. Over the past five years, the index itself has climbed at a healthy mid-to-high single-digit to low double-digit compounded annual growth rate, depending on the exact window measured, comfortably ahead of what a bank fixed deposit would have paid. But an index average hides a lot of dispersion beneath the surface.

A close look at NSE-quoted closing prices for individual constituents shows that six of the fifty companies in the index actually delivered a negative five-year price CAGR meaning an investor who bought and held these stocks for five years would have less money today, in rupee terms, than they started with, before counting any dividends received along the way.

The Six Stocks With Negative Five-Year CAGR

Based on NSE closing-price data over the trailing five-year window, the following Nifty 50 constituents show a negative compounded annual growth rate on a pure price basis:

Stock	Sector	Approx. 5-Yr Price CAGR
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)	IT Services	-10.0%
Wipro	IT Services	-8.8%
Infosys	IT Services	-8.8%
HDFC Life Insurance	Life Insurance	-3.6%
Hindustan Unilever (HUL)	FMCG	-2.5%
Asian Paints	Paints / Chemicals	-2.1%

Two things stand out immediately. First, the IT services sector accounts for exactly half the list, and its three representatives, namely TCS, Wipro, and Infosys post the steepest declines by a wide margin.

Second, the remaining three names span very different sectors (insurance, FMCG, and paints), suggesting the underperformance isn't confined to a single industry story but reflects a broader pattern of large, mature, richly-valued companies struggling to grow earnings fast enough to justify their starting valuations from five years ago.

It's worth being precise about what this list does and doesn't capture. These are price-return figures only, they exclude dividends, bonus shares, and buyback proceeds, all of which would improve the total return picture for shareholders, particularly for consistent dividend payers like TCS, Infosys, and HUL.

They also reflect a rolling five-year window as of mid-2026, not a fixed calendar period, so the exact percentages will drift as new trading days roll in and out of the calculation. And because the Nifty 50's constituents are reviewed and reshuffled twice a year, some of today's members weren't in the index five years ago, and some stocks that were in the index then have since been replaced. This analysis is necessarily confined to companies that are Nifty 50 members today.

Why the IT Majors Led the Decline

The common thread across TCS, Infosys, and Wipro is a structural repricing of the Indian IT services business model. Five years ago, these companies traded at growth-stock multiples on the back of pandemic-era digital transformation spending. Since then, enterprise technology budgets in the US and Europe, the primary markets for Indian IT exporters have tightened, discretionary project spending has slowed, and clients have increasingly used generative AI tools to automate work that used to be billed by the hour, such as manual coding, software testing, and first-line technical support.

That combination of slower revenue growth and compressed valuation multiples is a classic recipe for negative stock returns even when the underlying businesses remain profitable.

HDFC Life, HUL, and Asian Paints tell a related but distinct story. All three were trading at premium valuations five years ago on expectations of durable, high-single-digit-to-double-digit earnings growth.

Since then, a broad slowdown in consumer demand, rising competitive intensity (including from newer, lower-cost entrants in paints and personal care), and regulatory or margin pressure in insurance have combined to disappoint those growth expectations, pulling valuations and share prices down even as absolute profits have generally continued to rise, just more slowly than the market had priced in.

What the Loss Looks Like in Dollar Terms

For anyone measuring returns in US dollars, a Non-Resident Indian investor, a global fund, or simply someone benchmarking against a dollar-denominated portfolio, the picture is worse than the rupee figures suggest. The rupee has weakened by roughly 28-29% against the dollar over the same five-year window, moving from around ₹74 per dollar in mid-2021 to roughly ₹95-96 per dollar in mid-2026. That currency depreciation stacks directly on top of the stock-price decline for a dollar-based investor.

To illustrate: a hypothetical $10,000 invested in each of these stocks five years ago, converted to rupees at the prevailing exchange rate and then converted back to dollars at today's rate, would look roughly like this:

Stock	Estimated Value Today	Approx. Dollar Loss
TCS	~$4,600	-$5,400 (-54%)
Wipro	~$4,900	-$5,100 (-51%)
Infosys	~$4,900	-$5,100 (-51%)
HDFC Life	~$6,500	-$3,500 (-35%)
HUL	~$6,850	-$3,150 (-31%)
Asian Paints	~$7,000	-$3,000 (-30%)

These figures are illustrative calculations combining NSE price data with prevailing USD/INR reference rates; they exclude dividends and taxes, and actual investor outcomes would vary based on the exact entry and exit dates. But the direction is unambiguous: for a dollar-based investor, the rupee's depreciation roughly doubles the pain already visible in the rupee-denominated numbers. A stock like TCS, which "only" lost about 41% of its value in rupee terms over five years, effectively lost more than half its value once translated into dollars.

None of these six companies are in financial distress, all remain profitable, dividend-paying, Nifty 50-eligible businesses with strong balance sheets. What this data really illustrates is a valuation correction: five years ago, the market priced in growth rates for IT services, FMCG, insurance, and paints that didn't materialize, and share prices have spent the years since adjusting downward to reflect a more modest reality.

For long-term investors, it's a reminder that even the bluest of blue-chip stocks can deliver flat or negative price returns for extended stretches, and that index-level averages can mask meaningful divergence among individual constituents, divergence that becomes even more pronounced once currency effects are layered on top for dollar-based investors.

Source note: Stock price figures derived from NSE closing-price data; currency figures derived from USD/INR reference rates. Figures exclude dividends, bonus issues, and buybacks, and are approximate as of mid-2026.

Disclaimer

The content on this website is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a recommendation, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security, mutual fund, or financial instrument. Equity Research India is not a SEBI-registered investment advisor or research analyst, and nothing on this site constitutes personalized financial advice.

Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read all scheme-related documents carefully before investing. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. NAV, returns, rankings, and other data may change and may not reflect the most current information at the time of reading.

Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult a SEBI-registered financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Equity Research India and its authors accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of this content.