Indian equity benchmarks slumped in Thursday's afternoon trade after Russia carried out a massive attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. "Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy's massive strike," Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a social media post. The domestic indices were dragged by IT, banks, financials, automobile and consumer stocks. The BSE Sensex slumped over 1,000 points while the NSE barometer Nifty hit the sub-24,000 level. At 1:22 pm, the 30-pack Sensex was down 1,019 points or 1.27 per cent at 79,215 and the NSE benchmark plunged 308 points or 1.27 per cent to trade at 23,967. Such was the fall in the domestic indices that around Rs 1.5 lakh crore of BSE market capitalisation (m-cap) was wiped out.
The drop in the key domestic benchmarks was also in line with major Asian markets following an overnight fall in US stocks. Also, a costlier dollar and US President-elect Donald Trump's claims of levying higher tariffs on imports are weighing on investor sentiment. "A strong dollar is a negative for emerging markets and, therefore, foreign investors are unlikely to turn aggressive buyers. Also, large institutions would prefer to wait and watch for clarity on Trump's policies and its likely impact on trade and the global economy," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Here's a look at today's market fall in numbers:
Rs 1.5 lakh crore investor wealth lost
Investor wealth, as suggested by the BSE m-cap, fell Rs 1.51 lakh crore to Rs 442.96 lakh crore compared with a valuation of Rs 444.48 lakh crore recorded in the previous session. Frontline stocks such as Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, M&M, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HCLTechnologies, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank contributed to the fall today.
19 stocks hit 52-week lows on BSE
As many as 19 stocks hit their 52-week lows today. BSE stocks such as Kuantum Papers, Response Informatics, Star Housing Finance, Tejassvi Aaharam and Tree House Education their respective one-year low levels. That said, 186 stocks touched their one-year high levels today.
1,710 stocks in the red
Out of 3,992 stocks, 2,143 stocks were seen advancing. Only 1,710 stocks were declining, while 139 stocks remained unchanged.
Amber Enterprises & Max Financial down up to 6%
Shares of Amber Enterprises India, Max Financial Services Ltd, Triveni Turbine, Rainbow Children's Medicare, SBI Life, HDFC Life, L&T Technology Services, Ajanta Pharma and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) fell up to 6.21 per cent.
IT, banks & financials among top drags
For Sensex, the major culprits that dragged the index lower were Infy, ICICI Bank, TCS, M&M, RIL, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HCLTech, Airtel and Kotak Bank. Infosys, ICICI and TCS alone contributed negatively to a 370-point decline.
On NSE, 5 out of 16 sub-indices were down. Nifty IT, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Consumer Durables fell sharply. However, Nifty PSU Bank was up 0.60 per cent.
FII-DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought Rs 7.78 crore worth of shares on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 1,301.97 crore worth of equity, according to stock exchange data.