mumbai in rangebound trades although the sensex shed just 18 points in mondays market to close 2012 at 19427 it also left the index up nearly 26 for the year the best since 2009 when the index was up a record 81 the gains were one of the best among the leading indices from major countries across the globe the strong gains came on the back of a strong fii inflow of 244 billion some late moves by the government to put the slowing economy back on track and the resilience by local investors in the face of global concerns like debt problems in the eurozone area and budgetrelated problems in the us popularly the fiscal cliff the year also made investors richer by nearly rs 16 lakh crore with bses market capitalization now at rs 692 lakh crore the highest in more than a year the gains also came despite the resilience by the rbi to cut key policy rates except once in april which would have given a further boost to the market brokers said among the sensex stocks tata motors was the best performing stock in 2012 notching up a gain of 625 while technology major infosys down 178 was the worst in this pack of 30 on the sectoral front despite rising bad assets banking was the top performer up about 57 followed by real estate despite several signs of a slowdown and fmcg which in contrast to the other two showed strong performance going ahead given the fact that the government is showing some serious intent to put the economy back on track brokers and dealers are expecting a strong rally at least till the budget in february however during this annual process in february 2013 the finance minister has to walk a tight rope of balancing populist expectations since this will be last full budget before the 2014 lok sabha elections and a practical one that would help bring down the fiscal deficits