Two days of market fall erode ₹8.67 lakh crore from investors' wealth

Investors' wealth eroded by ₹8.67 lakh crore in two days of sharp fall in the equity market, where the benchmark Sensex tanked 1.52%.

Persistent foreign fund outflows and heavy selling in financial, IT stocks have dragged the markets lower.

In the past two trading days, the 30-share BSE Sensex has dropped 1,263.55 points or 1.52%.

Following the sharp fall in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell by ₹8,67,406.75 crore to ₹4,51,67,858.16 crore (USD 5.22 trillion) in two days.

On Friday, the Sensex tanked 721.08 points or 0.88% to settle at over a month's low of 81,463.09. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 225.10 points or 0.90% to a month's low of 24,837.

Among Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance declined 4.73% post its June quarter earnings announcement. Power Grid, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Trent, Tata Motors, NTPC and Tata Steel were also among the laggards.

However, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel emerged as the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹2,133.69 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

The BSE smallcap gauge tanked 1.88% and midcap index dropped 1.46%.

Utilities slumped 2.37%, power tumbled 2.36%, oil & gas (2.11%), industrials (1.88%), capital goods (1.83%), IT (1.65%) and metal (1.64%).

BSE Healthcare emerged as the only gainer.

As many as 2,892 stocks declined while 1,117 advanced and 145 remained unchanged on the BSE.