Stock market turmoil, investors lose ₹9 lakh crore in a single day

Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): The Indian stock market ended sharply lower on the last trading day of the week amid rising tensions in the US-Iran conflict and uncertainty over a possible peace agreement. Weak global cues led to heavy selling, pushing benchmark indices deep into the red.

At closing, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 1,690.23 points or 2.25% to settle at 73,583.22, while the Nifty 50 declined 486.85 points or 2.09% to 22,819.60.

During the session, the Sensex opened at 74,883.79 and dropped over 1,736 points (more than 2.30%) to hit an intraday low of 73,534.41. Similarly, the Nifty 50 opened at 23,173.55 and slipped over 501 points (more than 2.15%) to touch 22,804.55.

Broader markets underperformed the benchmarks. The Nifty Midcap index declined 2.23%, while the Nifty Smallcap index fell 1.74%.

Sector-wise, public sector banks emerged as the worst-hit segment, falling 3.86%. This was followed by declines in Nifty Realty (3.17%), Nifty Auto (2.82%), Nifty Financial Services (2.69%), and Nifty Private Bank (2.01%).

Meanwhile, Nifty IT was the least affected sector, declining just 0.44%, making it the best performer of the day.

Only six stocks in the Nifty 50 ended in the green. Shares of ONGC rose 4.03%, Wipro gained 1.22%, Bharti Airtel advanced 0.82%, Tata Consultancy Services climbed 0.42%, Coal India added 0.32%, and Power Grid Corporation of India rose 0.24%.

On the losing side, Shriram Finance dropped the most by 5.54%, followed by Tata Motors DVR (4.92%), Reliance Industries (4.61%), InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) (4.48%), and Bajaj Finance (4.11%).

The sharp sell-off wiped out nearly ₹9 lakh crore of investor wealth, as the total market capitalization of companies listed on the BSE fell from ₹431 lakh crore in the previous session to ₹422 lakh crore.