Sensex falls over 600 points, investors lose nearly Rs 4 lakh crore

Sensex falls over 600 points, investors lose nearly Rs 4 lakh crore

The Sensex and Nifty experienced a downturn on Wednesday, resulting in a loss of wealth for investors.

The S&P BSE Sensex plummeted by 587 points or 0.81 per cent, reaching 72,161 in late morning trading, while NSE Nifty50 dropped by 186 points or 0.84 per cent to hit the 21,869 mark. This decline was largely driven by weakness observed in consumer, IT, and energy stocks.

The market witnessed a substantial loss of around Rs 3.8 lakh crore in BSE market capitalisation (m-cap). The investor wealth, as indicated by the BSE m-cap, decreased by Rs 3.86 lakh crore to Rs 374.93 lakh crore compared to the previous session’s valuation of Rs 378.79 lakh crore.

Several prominent stocks including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), L&T, Infosys, HUL, ITC, Nestle India, HCLTech, and Tata Motors contributed to the market’s downturn.

Consumer, IT, and energy stocks saw a notable slump. All 15 sector gauges compiled by the NSE were trading in the red, with sub-indexes like Nifty FMCG, Nifty Consumer Durables, Nifty IT, and Nifty Oil & Gas experiencing significant declines.

TCS witnessed a drop of about 3 per cent, the most on the Nifty, following Tata Sons’ announcement of a $1.13 billion stake sale at a 3.7 per cent discount. This move also impacted the IT index (Nifty), which recorded a slide of 1.85 per cent, the most among major sectors.

Global cues also influenced the market’s performance. US rate-sensitive IT stocks fell by 3.3 per cent as expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut diminished due to recent higher-than-expected inflation figures. Asian markets followed suit, remaining down ahead of the Fed decision.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,051.09 crore on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 2,260.88 crore, according to exchange data.