Coronavirus bites into wealth of richest Indians; Ambani, Damani, Adani lose billions

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani lost $1.8 billion in wealth today after Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) share price plunged to a fresh 52-week low. According to the Forbes real-time Billionaires list, Ambani's net worth fell to $40.2 billion at the end of market hours today. The $1.8 billion decline in Ambani's wealth comes on the back of 8% or Rs 91.6 fall in the share price of RIL today.

The RIL stock, which hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 1,049.50 today ended at Rs 1,061 compared to the previous close of Rs 1,153.25 on BSE.

Similarly, India's second-richest person Radhakishan Damani and his family lost $828 million in the market crash today. The fall in market wealth of Damani and family came after share price of Avenue Supermarts plunged 5% or Rs 106 to Rs 2,018 compared to the previous close of Rs 2,124 on BSE.

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Shiv Nadar, billionaire industrialist and founder of HCL, who is the third-richest Indian saw his market wealth decline by $1.1 billion to $13.1 billion.  

Nadar's net worth eroded after HCL Technologies closed 8.18% or Rs 44 lower at Rs 492.90 compared to the previous close of Rs 536.80.

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Banking sector billionaire Uday Kotak, who is the executive vice-chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, suffered a loss of $867 million after the share price of private sector lender slumped 7.72% or Rs 122 to close at Rs 1,466 on BSE.

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Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal and his family saw their net worth erode by $596 million after price of Bharti Airtel closed 5.82% or Rs 28 lower at Rs 464.95 on BSE. Mittal has a net worth of $9.5 billion and is the fifth-richest Indian.

Similarly, today's market crash erased $1 million from net worth of Cyrus Poonawalla. Poonawalla who stands at sixth position on the index recorded net worth of $9.4 billion.

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While Gautam Adani with net worth of $9.2 billion lost $1.5 billion, Lakshmi Mittal's net worth fell to $8.5 billion after $526 million erosion in market wealth today.

The erosion in the net worth of these richest Indians comes on the back of Sensex and Nifty logging their biggest single-day losses ever. Sensex lost 2,919 points or 8.18% today to close at 32,778 after WHO declared coronavirus a global pandemic. Nifty too slumped 868 points or 8.30% to end at 9,590.

Sensex has lost 21.14% or 8,787 points during the last one month and Nifty has fallen 21.40% or 2,611 points during the period as coronavirus has led to a crash in markets across the world.