Sensex Crashes 1,546 Points, Extends Fall To Fifth Straight Session; Nifty Ends Below 17,150: 10 Points

Investors have lost around 20 lakh crore in wealth in a five-day sharp slump on Dalal Street, with the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies falling to Rs 260 lakh crore from January 17’s Rs 280 lakh crore mark.

Mid- and small-cap shares finished lower as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 3.86 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 4.78 per cent. In contrast, NSE’s India VIX, Volatility Index, jumped as much as 20.84 per cent.

Markets are likely to continue their sluggish trend tracking weak global cues ahead of US Federal Reserve meeting, said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, Capitalvia Global Research Ltd.

Expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will move more quickly to hike interest rates to combat inflation hit the global indices hard. The sell-off hit bonds as well, pushing U.S. Treasury yields to multi-year highs. Higher yields and interest rate hikes tend to make risky assets like emerging market equities less attractive, leading to outflows of funds from the region.

Back home, all the 15 sector gauges — compiled by the National Stock Exchange — settled in red. Nifty Metal underperformed the index by diving 5.23 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, JSW Steel was the top Nifty loser as the stock cracked 6.92 per cent to Rs 620.15. Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Grasim Industries and Hindalco were also among the laggards.

Also, Zomato, Paytm and Nykaa shares fell 20 per cent, 4.68 per cent and 12.55 per cent, respectively, to hit their lowest levels since listing. 

The overall market breadth stood weak as 518 shares advanced while 3,068 declined on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE platform, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Wipro, TechM, Titan, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries attracted the most losses with their shares sliding as much as 5.37 per cent.

“This weakness in the markets is due to the FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) and FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) fishing out money from the Indian markets. If we look at the data, FIIs have sold out equities worth Rs 11,000 crore in the last three sessions last week,” Ravi Singhal, Vice-Chairman at GCL Securities, said. FIIs had sold shares worth Rs 3,148.58 crore on Friday.