Investors lose over ₹8 lakh crore in wealth; foreign fund outflow crosses ₹4,000 crore in last two days of Sensex, Nifty slump

This week ended with a bloodbath as far as Indian equities were concerned. Two consecutive days of sharp fall meant lakhs of crores of rupees were wiped from investors. 

In fact, as the BSE benchmark Sensex slid 1.52 per cent over the last couple of days, a staggering ₹8.67 lakh crore was wiped off the wealth of market investors.

With an earnings season that began strongly but fumbled lately, Indian markets saw intense selling in IT stocks and the BFSI sector. Adding to that was the persistent outflow of foreign funds, which pushed the 30-pack Sensex down more than 1,263 points in two days.

This meant that the market cap of BSE-listed firms tanked en masse to ₹4,51,67,859 crore, losing over ₹8,67,406 crore in value during the period. Now, the Sensex has settled at 81,463.09 points, its lowest in over a month.

The other major benchmark, the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty, also dropped to settle below the 25,000 level at 24,837 points, its lowest in over a month.

Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal Financial Services told agencies that the dip in equities was, in part, due to “global uncertainties, lack of progress in the India-US trade negotiations, and continuous selling by foreign investors”.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded ₹4,113.65 crore worth of equities on a net basis on both days (₹2,133.69 crore on Thursday and ₹1,979.96 crore on Friday).

This outflow, along with mounting uncertainty over the India-US trade deal, even pulled down the Indian currency, with the rupee sliding 12 paise to settle at 86.52 vs the dollar when Friday ended.

Business