Investors' wealth erodes by Rs 16 lakh cr as Sensex tumbles 5% in five days

New Delhi: Market investors became poorer by Rs 16.26 lakh crore in five days of heavy correction in equities amid worsening tensions in the Middle East and foreign fund outflows.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms slumped Rs 16,26,691.48 crore to Rs 4,60,89,598.54 crore (USD 5.49 trillion) in five days of the market crash.

Since Friday last, the BSE Sensex tumbled 4,147.67 points or 4.83 per cent.

"Negative bias continued for 5th straight session amid rising fears of a surge in crude oil prices due to the ongoing west Asia war," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

Falling for the fifth day running on Friday, the BSE Sensex tumbled 808.65 points or 0.98 per cent to settle at 81,688.45. The benchmark hit a low of 81,532.68 and a high of 83,368.32 during the day, reflecting a wild swing of 1,835.64 points.

"The bearish sentiment continued as investors are monitoring the escalating conflict in the Middle East and have adopted a sell-on recovery strategy. “Crude prices have moved up sharply but may be restricted due to an increase in production from OPEC+. The drag was across sectors led by realty, auto, and FMCG except IT stocks, which gained due to expected benefits from US rate cuts and defensive nature.

"The pessimism on the market is expected to continue in the near term amidst rising crude prices and fund flows to cheaper markets like China," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Nestle, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, and HDFC Bank were the major laggards.

In contrast, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 15,243.27 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory. Markets in mainland China are closed due to a holiday.

European markets were trading higher in mid-session deals. The US markets ended lower on Thursday.

Among the indices, realty lost 1.60 per cent, auto (1.50 per cent), telecommunication (1.25 per cent), utilities (1.20 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.18 per cent) and commodities (1.14 per cent).

IT emerged as the only gainer.

A total of 2,387 stocks declined while 1,563 advanced and 104 remained unchanged on the BSE.