Pre-Budget sell-off: Investors lose Rs 11.58 lakh crore as Sensex falls 3,500 points in six days

Benchmark indices lower for the sixth straight session as the pre-Budget Economic Survey failed to cheer investors. Sensex ended 588.59 points lower at 46,285 and Nifty closed 182.95 points lower at 13,634.

In six sessions, Sensex has lost 3,506.35 points or 7.04 per cent. Similarly, Nifty has declined 1,010.10 points or 6.89 per cent.

The market correction has wiped out Rs 11.58 lakh crore in investor wealth. On January 20, market cap on BSE stood at Rs 197.70 lakh crore which fell to 186.12 lakh crore today.

Continued selling by foreign funds and a bearish trend overseas led the market lower today. On Friday, FIIs sold securities worth Rs 5,930.66 crore. FIIs have sold shares worth Rs 12,731.88 crore in last five trading sessions.

Meanwhile, on Sensex, 26 shares closed in the red.

Dr Reddy's, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, TCS, NTPC and Bajaj FinServ were the major losers, slumping as much as 5.69 per cent.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank ended with gains of up to 5.44 per cent. "Weakening global trend due to the concerns of speculation and slowing economic recovery has hugely impacted the cautious pre-Budget domestic market. The pace of recovery in the US and Europe has slowed down, having implication on Indian exports and FII inflows.

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"In this waning domestic trend, Budget will be the key to provide strength and perform better compared to the rest of the world. Expectations are high that the government should maintain the populist and reformist agenda of maintaining the mass sentiments, deficit discipline and growth in difficult pandemic period," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Of the 19 BSE sectoral indices, 16 closed with losses. Market breadth was negative with 1,327 stocks ending higher against 1587 ending lower on BSE. 149 stocks were unchanged.

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Number of shares rising to their 52-week highs stood at 165 against 36 touching their 52-week lows. 275 stocks hit their upper circuits against 264 falling to their lower circuits, respectively.