Investors’ wealth took a significant hit on Friday morning, with Rs 4.12 lakh crore wiped off due to a sharp market correction. The plunge was attributed to weak global trends and renewed foreign fund outflows. The 30-share BSE Sensex continued its downward trajectory for the third consecutive session, plummeting 896.7 points or 1.09 per cent to 81,304 in early trade. This comes after the benchmark had soared to an all-time high of 82,725 earlier in the week.
As a result of the weak sentiment, the total market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies dropped by Rs 4.12 lakh crore, bringing it down to Rs 4,61,56,748.42 crore ($5.50 trillion) during morning trade.
At 2.20 pm, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 1033 points to 81,168, on the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 plunged below 24,850, dropping 295 points.
Among the Sensex pack, major losers included State Bank of India, HCL Technologies, Reliance Industries, Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, and Mahindra & Mahindra. On the other hand, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, and Hindustan Unilever managed to register gains.
Asian markets also mirrored the weakness, with indices in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong trading lower. Similarly, US markets closed mostly in the red on Thursday.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who had been net buyers in recent sessions, turned sellers, offloading equities worth Rs 688.69 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude saw a marginal increase of 0.15 per cent, trading at $72.81 per barrel.
“The near-term trend in the market will be influenced by the US jobs data, expected to be released tonight,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
On Thursday, the BSE benchmark failed to hold onto its early gains and ended 151.48 points lower, closing at 82,201.16.
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