When you adjust for inflation gains look terribly low. Inflation is how much your money’s purchasing power reduces. So you have to adjust for that, so let’s assume we invested X rupees in the stock market, got dividends and reinvested them, what would that money be today (in the same purchasing power that I originally invested them as)?
We are probably just 300 points from an all time high (5%) and but the difference if you consider dividends and inflation is much lower.
This is only with WPI inflation. With CPI, which is at 9% but doesn’t have such a big history, things are much worse!
Note: Reader Nikhil asks me to put in the Nifty TRI (Total Returns Index) for a comparison. Your wish is my command!