Two ways to measure “how did I do?”
Price return (price P/L) looks only at the market value of shares you still hold versus what you paid for them.
Total return adds cash dividends you received while holding (and, in full broker math, other cash flows). On Tools.Town:
Total return ₹ = (market value − cost basis) + dividends received
Example
- Cost basis: ₹1,00,000
- Market value today: ₹1,10,000 → price P/L ₹10,000 (+10%)
- Dividends over the period: ₹5,000
- Total return: ₹15,000 (+15%)
Same holding — different story if you ignore dividends.
CAGR
If you enter buy and as-of dates, the calculator can show:
- Price CAGR — annualised from cost → market value
- Total-return CAGR — annualised from cost → market value + dividends
Neither includes taxes, brokerage, or currency effects.
Try it
- Open the Stock Investment Return Calculator.
- Enter buy price, amount, and current price.
- Add Dividend corporate-action rows (₹ per share × shares as of that date).
- Compare Price P/L vs Total return on the result card.
For yield from price + DPS alone (no holding history), use the Dividend Yield Calculator.