Equity investors become poorer by Rs 5.27 lakh cr amid mkt slump

New Delhi: Investors' wealth plummeted Rs 5.27 lakh crore on Thursday in line with markets fall following a sharp decline in Adani group stocks.

The BSE benchmark Sensex plunged 422.59 points or 0.54 per cent to settle at 77,155.79. During the day, it lost 775.65 points or 0.99 per cent to 76,802.73.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 5,27,767.57 crore to Rs 4,25,38,908.01 crore (USD 5.04 trillion).

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Adani Ports tumbled 13.53 per cent after Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors for allegedly being part of a scheme to pay USD 265 million (about Rs 2,200 crore) bribe to Indian officials in exchange of favourable terms for solar power contracts.

All other Adani group stocks, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Ports and Adani Green Energy, also fell sharply.

NTPC, State Bank of India, ITC, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were also among the major laggards.

In contrast, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the gainers.

"While the market has been in the midst of a bear hug for the past few weeks, today's fall can also be attributed to the news of Adani group facing bribery charges which triggered a massive sell-off in its group stocks. Besides the news, most of the Asian and European markets were in negative territories which also weighed on the sentiment," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,411.73 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

"The domestic market faced renewed pressure due to escalating tensions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and heightened nuclear concerns. Additionally, the fresh Adani case with the US DoJ (Department of Justice) added to the market's woes. Although there were signs of a slowdown in FII selling, it surged again, adversely affecting market sentiment, particularly financials sector," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

The BSE smallcap gauge declined 0.67 per cent and the midcap index dipped 0.37 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, services slumped 4.14 per cent, utilities (3.16 per cent), commodities (1.55 per cent), oil & gas (1.45 per cent), power (1.34 per cent) and auto (0.91 per cent).

Healthcare, IT, realty and teck were the gainers.

As many as 2,736 stocks declined while 1,237 advanced and 92 remained unchanged on the BSE.