Four days of market crash wipes out Rs 9.30 lakh crore from investors' wealth

Investors' wealth eroded by Rs 9.30 lakh crore in four days of a sharp correction in the markets amid concerns over fading rate cut hopes, foreign fund outflows and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 454.69 points or 0.62 per cent to settle at 72,488.99 on Thursday. In four days, the benchmark has lost 2,549.16 points or 3.39 per cent. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies diminished by Rs 9,30,304.76 crore to Rs 3,92,89,048.31 crore (USD 4.70 trillion) in four days.

"Markets witnessed frenzied selling towards the closing stages in a highly volatile trading session, as concerns over fading rate cut hopes and persisting FII fund exodus from local stocks dampened investors' sentiment.

"Even as the Indian economy has been resilient and managed to dodge global worries, worries of stubborn inflation, rising instances of geopolitical tensions and delay in interest rate cut have fuelled profit-taking," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

The BSE Sensex hit its all-time peak of 75,124.28 on April 9. The index breached the historic 75,000 mark for the first time on the same day. On April 10, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex ended above the 75,000 mark for the first time.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies went past the coveted Rs 400 lakh crore mark for the first time on April 8. However, from April 12 onwards the markets have been falling. Stock markets were closed on Wednesday on account of Ram Navami.

From the Sensex basket, Nestle declined the most by over 3 per cent amid reports that the global FMCG major sold infant milk products with more sugar content in less developed countries.

Titan Company, Axis Bank, NTPC, Tata Motors, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Finance were the other laggards. Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Infosys and Larsen & Toubro were among the gainers. In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined by 0.39 per cent while the smallcap index went up marginally by 0.06 per cent.

Among the indices, consumer durables declined 1.52 per cent, oil & gas (0.96 per cent), auto (0.73 per cent), realty (0.70 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.54 per cent) and commodities (0.39 per cent).

Telecommunication and tech were the gainers. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,468.09 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.