Investors become poorer by Rs 4.12 lakh cr during morning trade as markets slump

Investors' wealth plummeted by Rs 4.12 lakh crore during the morning trade on Friday as markets faced a massive correction tracking a weak trend in global peers and fresh foreign fund outflows. Falling for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 896.7 points or 1.09 per cent to 81,304.46 during the morning trade.

The BSE benchmark had hit its all-time high of 82,725.28 on Monday. Following the weak trend in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms slumped Rs 4,12,152.83 crore to Rs 4,61,56,748.42 crore (USD 5.50 trillion) during the morning trade. Among the 30 Sensex firms, State Bank of India, HCL Technologies, Reliance Industries, Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest laggards.

Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints and Hindustan Unilever were the gainers. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower. The US markets ended mostly in the negative territory on Thursday. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 688.69 crore on Thursday after days of remaining buyers, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude traded 0.15 per cent higher to USD 72.81 a barrel. "The near-term trend in the market will be influenced by the US jobs data to be published tonight," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services. The BSE benchmark on Thursday failed to hold on to initial gains and declined 151.48 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 82,201.16.