Stock Market Today: Investors' wealth plunges over Rs 3.39 lakh crore in early trade - What led to this?

Investors' wealth plunged over Rs 3.39 lakh crore in early trade on Friday amid an extremely weak broader market trend.

The BSE benchmark tanked 1,011.93 points to 57,914.10 after a weak opening.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined by Rs 3,39,519.47 crore to Rs 2,64,41,844.80 crore in early trade.

"US inflation in January came worse-than-expected at 7.5 per cent pushing the 10-year yield to 2.03 per cent discounting a hawkish Fed, which may raise rates by at least by 100 basis points this year. A rate hike by even 50 bps in March is looking increasingly probable now. This is not good news for global equity markets," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

IT stocks were the biggest drag among the BSE 30-share benchmark frontline companies pack. Infosys was the biggest loser, falling nearly 3 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra and Wipro.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices were trading over 1 per cent lower.

In the previous trading session, the 30-share BSE benchmark settled 460.06 points or 0.79 per cent higher at 58,926.03.